..hisashiburi! (long time no see!)

hi guys!
realised how infrequent my postings have been.. pardon me!! its amazing how time flies by sometimes.. have been in apu for almost a month now.. going on to the 3rd week of sch (while my smu counterparts are having summer break now!)..
wish i were home sometimes even though im getting used to being away.. miss my family.. zq .. really dont regret coming to japan..its really been a wonderful experience so far..hopefully i'll get to travel ard a lil bit more too! okinawa perhaps! :)
it's still a little chilly here in beppu.. the weather changes so drastically! just 3 days ago the temperature dropped to like 10 degrees again.. was pretty glad that i still had one winter jacket with me.. everyone ard sch was decked out in the winter wear again .. haha. pretty interesting to see fur coats and scarves when we're approaching the end of april .. hee.

my jap hw is sitting on my table now.. calling out to me.. haha. but somehow.... think i'll let it sit there for a lil while more ;) ..
japanese is truly, a difficult language. although knowledge of chinese helps.. the sentence structures and grammar and polite/inpolite ways of speaking, writing and listening really boggles my mind. haha. its like, other than the formal japanese.. there's all these slangs used that flies abt when i try to listen to the japanese students speak.. haha.
for example, to put sth in the microwave, they use the word "Ching-suru" . "Ching" coming from the sound the microwave makes.. haha.. and suru just means to do sth. There are A LOT of description sound words in the japanese day to day conversations. heh.

oh oh!! went for hip hop dance today at oita city for 2 classes conducted by this damn zai instructor.. =) she reminded me a lil of my emix mama too.. small but lots of spunk and attitude.. was great!! but im so gonna ache tmr..the first class we did was reg. hip hop.. the second we did a lil locking and old sch.. the first was ok.. made me miss dancing with emix!! i miss you guys!!! (kun, go dance in switz! costumes made of swiss choc! heeee) ya but there were a few of the japanese who were REALLY good..made me feel sooooo inadequate.. like there was this little girl (i mean physical stature) who was amazing at freestyle.. and another damn cool girl in braids .. all damn zai at free.. there were also a couple of guys who really stood out.. one was good at old sch.. another at breaking/freestyling.. think the leader of the dance grp's pretty adept at house too! can't wait to dance more man.. got to brush up on freestyling .. haha..

gonna start on my hw soon i guess.. right after i do kitchen duty tonight (cleaning of the kitchen and throwing out the trash..) can feel my shoulders aching already...........


this is the view we get from our sch.. on the mountain we are.. hee

beautiful eh? imagine the cafeteria overlooking the mountains as well.. ..



my room!! all filled. hee



view on the other side.. (i have a shelf load of snacks stocked up. haha)




dinner over at ap house 2 (the other dormitory.. i live in ap house 1)

dinner for that day! taco rice! jenelle's treat that day .. so she cooked sth a lil more western.. more like mexican ..yummy!

our first karaoke (japaneses youths' fav. pastime) session in beppu :)

paul (from korea) on the far left .. is an amazing singer.. we were all shocked when he sang! think he has a mini fan club now. haha

pica pica festival in sch! it was like a flea market, food market kinda festival held over the last weekend .. was great fun! this was a taiko drum performance.. there was even a food eating competition! haha.. sth we dont get in singapore huh. ;)

at the festival with takahiro, ryuta and kyoko =) a lil nostalgic cos it reminded me of pasar malams.. hee. oh the flea market was so good! bought a couple of tops for like 2-3 sgd each.. heh.

reiona (she shares the same birthday as me! just minus a few yrs. hahaha) apu in the background!

one of my first encounter with anything close to e.x.e.r.c.i.s.e in apu. Soccer!!! it was fun! =) only weird thing was i didnt perspire at all. too cold still..

girls from my floor: kaori, yuuki, cha cha (korean), yuri, and yuki :) this was in the ap house 1 lobby..

common kitchen in the dorm :)

one of the first dishes i made.. healthy eh.. hah.

first trip down to beppu city from some mum mum. joyful.. at the back.. is like this family restaurant that sells western and jap food.. kinda like a denny's ? but cheaper ;)

apu: the beginning..

Official APU Entrance Ceremony!


the ceremony was held in a convention like hall in Beppu-shi.. most international students were dressed in ethnic wear!


weili, genelle (from hawaii), thor, me and Yuki (my roomie! she's learning chinese and her english is great! )


One of my first sakura experiences!!! =) pretty pretty pretty.

this was taken outside the clinic where we had our health examinations (the japanese are really thorough.. weight, height, blood test, tb test.. etc etc) i found out that i have high cholesterol! ok, just a lil over but still!!!! too long ive gone without exercise..

thats pj, genelle, me and kane. there's snow on the mountain behind us :) its april! its supposed to be spring.......

this was the sunrise i was talking abt.. the beginning of it ..with the sun peekng out..

my papa and mummy! we had lunch in the APU cafeteria with the rest of the singaporeans and a few japanese .. oh oh the cafeteria's pretty cool cos it has an excellent view of the mountains outside.. benefits of being on top of a mountain.. heh

my parents at a little hot spring in front of the Beppu station.. (there are hundreds of hot springs in Beppu..prob one of Japan's most famous areas for it)

at our dormitory floor meeting ..each pair had to cook a dish for dinner.. yuki and i made black pepper beef (as mentioned in my earlier post..hee) and stir fried cabbage with.. more beef. haha.

with my parents at Beppu park.. sakura was in full bloom then.. きれいですね!

tulips! can never find these in singapore..

hanami (sakura viewing) with the exchange students =)

with fellow exchange students from canada, john and kai.. (havent really gotten to know most of the exchange students well yet though.. )

han and jung from korea.. connie and wing (both superb in japanese) from hk..

hanami session 2 (the next day) with the girls from my dorm floor:

minasan! its really cool how the japanese just grab food and a mat and sit under the sakura trees for hours just relaxing and chatting and enjoying the view .. heh. the only view we'll get in singapore is prob coconuts. haha.

dione (from thailand) and me! she thought i was 18.. haha

from top:

cha cha (from korea), reiona (japan), me , dione, yasuno aka azuchan (nickname from azuki bean which is a small red bean.. cos she's so tiny! really cute girl with a great personality..), yuki and megumi :)

start of apu life..

hey everyone..
Think i've been lacking in the posts department for a while.. havent exactly been very busy.. but somehow i've not been able to sit down to type in a decent post..
School's finally starting for me tmr.. guess this whole experience is starting to feel less surreal now.. really missing home pretty badly now..
my parents came over to Beppu last week and it was great! didnt realise how much i'd miss them till i saw them and starting running to my mum .. and my Papa hugged me and i starting crying .. haha . quite drama now looking back.. but i was really so happy to see them.. :) it was great.. the whole 4 days or so with them.. went to catch the sakuras in full bloom.. tried an onsen overlooking almost the entire beppu city.. even caught a full sunrise from the hotel room! like literally saw the sky change colour.. and then see a full orange circle of light emerge from within the mountains.. it was a spectacular sight.. sth we could never see in Singapore i think..
Somehow the fact that they came.. makes me miss them even more now.. real pity my sis and bro couldnt come as well.. miss them terribly too..

The past ten days or so at APU flew by pretty quickly.. everyday I find myself meeting new people ard campus.. though i must admit i havent gotten to know anyone well yet.. haha. mostly his and byes for now.. its really interesting how APU is made up of so many different nationalities.. walking past the corridors of one dorm level i an hear mandarin, japanese, thai, indonesian, korean, english, vietnamese.. .. おもしろいね！(interesting!) ..
They're all so young too! Most of them being 18 or 19.. with a couple only 17!! makes me feel like an oldie over here.. hah . good thing is they all thought i was their age!! woohoo!! "forever young...i wanna be.. forever young.." hahaha ok ok .. enough of that now. but im really impressed by how independent they all are.. cooking (not just cup noodles) real meals that look like japan hour worthy dishes sometimes.. hee. makes me feel a little embarrassed man.. but im trying!! cooked a couple of dishes already so far.. black pepper beef (with the ready made seasoning packets ..no less.. haha) stir fried veggies.. potatoes with garlic, parsley, butter.. ;) pretty yummy.. hahaha . Guess what i've experienced so far has made me realised how sheltered a life i've had.. ive been really blessed .. and now its also the best opportunity for me to find out more about myself.. my direction in life from now.. and to truly learn to be more independent and be able to handle being alone.. w/o my loved ones by my side..
4 more months !!
Despite the internation environment.. one thing really clear is how the jap students still tend to stick together even if most can speak english pretty well..guess they're more prone to group together.. pretty much the same across most other nationalities too.. hopefully gradually we'll all be able to truly mix around.. that's the whole point of the exchange! haha.
Facing some probs with courses now..due to the lack of english courses.. guess thats been the only glitch so far.. will be having jap classes 4 times a week.. and classes split into 2 quarters for hte semester.. taking tea ceremony too!! but its the official courses i need for credits that's giving me probs now.. still hoping that sth can be done.. :P
Oh oh, porb gonna join a few circles (ccas) over here if possible.. japanese traditional dance perhaps? hee.. will update u guys on that next time..
Will be posting up my pics asap.. prob later tonight or tmr.. :) ..
for now.. jya ne! i miss you all!!

some final pics from my travels..

hey everyone.. this will be my last entry with my pics from travelling japan.. then i'll finally post up my APU pics!! woohoo!! haha pardon me.. its already one plus here.. way past my bedtime and i just had nice green tea, azuki bean bread.. supper.......think its a country thing. the bread being nice that is. haha.
ok one new thing im gonna try here is uploading my pics onto a web album so it's much more efficient and i can post more pics! hee. will put down the addresses :)


toba.. japanese ryokan

japanese ryokan (japanese inn) in Toba.. its a little city surrounded by the sea.. famous for seafood and mikimoto pearls! Most japanese hotels gave us the yukata (thin kimono) to put one.. mainly to go to their onsens.. hee. but onsens are really good ways to relax once u get past the embarassing bit of being naked in front of complete strangers.. (all of the same sex of course..) the warm water is extremely calming..


check out the sashimi!! an entire fish PLUS lobster (small one la) PLUS oysters and sea snails (that was a lil gross..) but the fish and lobster were delicious! from a non-sashimi eater, i believe that counts for pretty much. haha.



our entire meal ! (the table was literally filled with food.. sashimi, oysters, fish, soup, rice......etc etc) pity we werent seafood lovers..




breakfast was equally sumptious.. heh. nice eggs, crab in soup.. tofu in miso soup, grilled fish,salad, sausages..........think u got the point. heh

back in osaka from toba (in transit to fukuoka)

katsu don!! sinful stuff. think this is prob why my choloesterol level went up!! i got a cautionary during my apu health check! high cholesterol!! got to cut back on the agemono (fried food) man!

kyoto station again! astro boys everywhere!

this was our "golden room" in a tokyo budget inn.. the walls were literally covered with golden wallpaper.. pretty tiny room.. but cosy i guess.. 4 tiny beds side by side..

pasar malam: japan style!

they had food stalls and stalls selling little trinklets and clothes, accessories..

pretty similar to pasar malam..only more expensive.. and more delicious food.. he

in front of kyoto station! this was after arriving from osaka.. the station building's architecture was pretty awesome.. will have more pics on the web album!

this was a typical fppd pose for our dear kane kane.. (she poses like this for almost all the photos that she takes with food.. heh) omu rice here!

durians in japan anyone? heh.. they cost a whopping 25 SGD

this is the amzing berry cafe at kyoto station.. the fruit tarts are heavenly.

amazing.

the four of us started out wanting to just share 2 but we ended up getting another 2 more. heh.

more pics here! : http://picasaweb.google.com/miche.tyh/NaraAndBerryCafe

kyoto pics!

Hey guys, so sorry for being so laggy with my posts..its so much effort loading up the pics! haha. settling into the dormitory here in APU for the past few days..so pretty much going on.. bear with me!

First night in Kyoto:

Our backpacker's inn was pretty near Gion, the famous district to catch Maiko-sans (apprentice geishas) :) didnt really see many that night.. just one or two.. pity we didnt get to take many pics cos it was too dark..

one of the many streets on Gion..

heh we just saw this car when we went out to get groceries .. cute eh?

gigantic bowl of ramen! (they called it the special ramen..haha)

the shop where we ate.. the shops are really narrow in japan!!

eh.. this was in gion too.. in front of a restaurant interesting displays in japan.. think the dog is some mythical character though..

okashi! japanese sweets.. they all too pretty to be eaten..

day 2 in kyoto:

we went to visit a couple of the famous temples .. we got lucky! guess what?

we found her!!

this is a maiko san... =) just happened to bump into her taking photos here at the golden temple..she was really nice! turned to smile at us when we were taking photos of her.. really pretty! can tell that she is even with all the white make up on her face.. heh

she agreed to take a picture with us! =) really got us in a super mood the entire day cos it was really rare to bump into a maiko san..

Kinkakuji.. Golden temple..really pretty..

this was at the kiyomizu temple.. think its one of , if not the most famous temple in kyoto..
(kyoto's famous for its temples if you'd already guessd by now.. :) )

weili and kane trying to sweep the smoke over their heads (this is said to be able to make you smarter.. or bring you good luck..heh)

in front of the wooden plaques for making wishes..

the plum flowers in full bloom =)

this is a really famous zen garden comprising of just a few rocks.. you're actually supposed to sit down and look at them, reflect and meditate a lil..apparently there are many different ways of intepretating the meaning behind these rocks. (which we didnt do ..haha)

kyoto university - Kyodai.

This is prob the country's second best univesity after Tokyo University.. campus was pretty cool.. bigger and older than smu..but still very much like a city university..we even ate in the cafeteria ( which wasnt very good actually.. kopitiam might be better even! )

more pics at the kiyomizu temple.. sun was setting by then.

kane and thor drinking the spring water from the mountains..

sunset at the kiyomizu temple..

we kept bumping into these 3 ladies to my left that day..the leftmost two are from malaysia but are currently working in singapore whilst the 3rd lady ia japanese.. we actually heard them speak singlish on the bus which is why we started a conversation with them!

After the visits we met up with another 3 jap girls (weili's friends) and they treated us to tofu nabe!

u mai!! (delicious! ) .. it was really really really good.. the girls were all really nice.. all very warm and friendly =) you guys should try this sometime.. hee

outside the tofu restaurant.. mmmmmmmmmm