getting on the interweb

finally. i connected to the online world. it’s about time too! i was looking forward to tomorrow (cause that was the expected arrival date). but hey, i saw the stuff in the mailbox today and jumped for joy! hooray hooray! am now connected to the internet. have i said that too many times already? i’m no longer a moocher. hooray!

am crazily uploading all the pics into flickr. so if you go to the flickr page, there’d be lots of new pics you haven’t seen yet.

monday’s going to be the first official day of school. i’ll be making my introduction speech to crowded hall of 1300 students, and 40 (or more) teachers, in japanese no less. i’ve prepared a total of seven sentences. that’d take a total of 45 seconds to say. how to speak for 3-5minutes? or even 10minutes? maybe speak in english first, then japanese. and think of random things to say on stage like my favourite food, favourite author, what i do in my free time?

maybe there’d be a fire drill during my speech and all would be forgotten. i wish.

new word and a random post

i heard a new jap-lish word at school yesterday. i was asking one of my students her age, and she said, “自分-teen?” which is really a mix of saying, me? and seventeen (which she is). ah yes, the good young age of ji-bun-teen

new music update: i’ve been listening to monkey majik and they’re great! well, i only heard of them because of F from France. he plays the shamisen and there’s this track on one of their (monkey majik’s) singles that feature another brother duo on the shamisen. and it’s really good. fusion shamisen sounds nice. i find the one where they play slowly, sitting in seiza position painfully boring. but shamisen with modern infusions sound good.

last random update: the internet should, hopefully be up and running by the end of next week, beginning of september. this waiting for it to arrive is going to get to me. going to get some house things today. may the clutter and hoarding begin! if i don’t stay here for 3 years, i’m going to end up with lots of shite in the house after a year. and i promised myself i wouldn’t go that way..

oh. and i named my new ‘playmate’. mr microwave/frozen food thawer/toaster/oven (with high and low settings)/shallow pan fryer (for both cold and room temperature food products). mr multi-functional! my favourite home appliance ever! his name is “waldo” (formal), or “wally” (informal). pictures of wally soon. pictures of everything soon really. when i get my internet connection and when i start camping in front of the laptop.

hope yet

so… i’ve been complaining, whinging, ranting about the non-existent efficiency in japan, something which we’ve all thought and assumed happens naturally like breathing. japanese are efficient!…

but what about having to wait 3 hours in line at the mobile phone shop to ask about the mobile phone plan/get the phone fixed/ask a few questions?

but what about waiting 2-3 weeks for internet connection?

but what about having to wait more than 3 weeks now for something to be repaired?

i dunno man. i really don’t. but before i start to believe that efficiency really is non-existent when you’re just starting up, there is hope. there is hope yet for efficiency when you’re just starting new in japan. sure, every situation is different. i applied for a landline on tuesday, it’d get connected on friday. i also applied for internet access on tuesday, but unfortunately, due to the phone line only being open on friday, the application had to be on hold till thursday. today! and today i get a mail saying that my internet connection will be up on 31st august. hooray! that’s really quick seeing as how my other friends had to wait 2-3 weeks.

so hopefully, fingers crossed, i’ll be home when the mailman arrives and when that happens, the new toy arrives and i’ll be connected to the internet and hibernating all weekend in front of rafe (my laptop). this waiting will be very exciting and be a long tiring time. cause i’ll get my hopes all high and stuff, and if i’m not home when it arrives, or there’s some delay, i’d be truly disappointed.

there is hope yet for efficiency in japan. just that little bit.

real internet

finally, some real internet. i just got my internet access at school set up. hooray for internet! now i won’t be in the alt room slacking much. my home phone will start working this friday. internet, if all goes well, mid-september. if all goes well…..

payday was yesterday and i’ve yet to check my bank balance. it looks like i won’t be able to save any money for the first few months cause it seems like i’ll have a huge chunk of things to pay for come september and october. the electricity, gas, water, keitai (aka mobile phone), landline and internet bills, a fan for the hot nights (cheaper than turning the air-conditioning on), and a mattress and a new futon set. i think it’d be the bills that’d scare me the most. i’ve decided against having my bills automatically withdrawn from the bank account. no doubt that’d be easier. but imagine the shock when you check your bank balance!

asides from all these, pictures are slowly being uploaded to the flickr acct. there’s a whole lot of them! my first weekend at the apartment was spent cleaning the apartment, moving in. the second weekend, friday evening was spent with the rest of the prefectural dudes, and saturday was spent in tokyo with T.

coming up soon, osaka!

2 weeks already

i know the titles of the posts have been boring of late. but i’ve been mooching someone’s wifi while at home, while waiting for mine to be processed and set up. thanks to this neighbour, i’ve been able to get online spariodically.

some quick updates

1) went to tokyo last saturday to meet up with a uni mate. it was good. dinner was better… we ate so much until we were stuffed. the boss gave us a huge discount. a couple of their customers thought we were dating! the look on our faces when they said it was priceless. the stunned look, then the shaking of head and hands (in the no-we’re-not-going-out-just-friends way), then looked surprised that they’d think such a thing, then laughing (maybe just me anyway) because it’s so weird for people to think we’re together.

2) i’m more settled into the apartment. it looks more like home now.

3) it’s still freaking hot here! well, there’s actually a thunderstorm going on now… (quite scary cause it’s pretty close, both the lightning and thunder. i jumped a few times.) read the newspaper and 10 people have died in this heat. it’s madness. i’m just glad i didn’t die of heatstroke.

4) school doesn’t start till 3rd of September but school REALLY starts on the 12th/13th of september. but does it really? there’ll be 2 public holidays resulting in two long weekends in the 3rd and 4th week.

5) internet at home might only happen in mid-late september. which really sucks

6) on a brighter note, i’ll be heading to osaka mid september! hooray!!!! time to meet asayan, mo-chan, zion and zen!

this wasn’t a quick update at all for me. it took me awhile to type it out because of the many distractions (i.e. msn messages).

till the next post!

at home

am surfing and blogging from my mobile phone at home. pages don’t exactly load the best but it’d do till i get connected.

the apartment’s more or less settled.

actually, i’ve gotta go. haven’t quite mastered cycling and typing. headed to a beatles bar with some fellow jets.check the twitter updates. i’ll be updating there more.

bye for now!

in japan #2

hey guys,

i’m at homestay now. visited the school (just one of them), opened a bank account (deposited 1000 yen), applied for an alien identity card. doing all these things wearing a three piece suit just ain’t fun at all. i removed the jacket, but still, the heat without a breeze, or a warm breeze didn’t help much. the weather’s kinda like singapore weather. except that while singapore can get cloudy, it’s blue skies here. making it hotter somehow.

living in the hotel is really different from living in a house.

but wait. even a baby can tell you that.

tomorrow’s about signing the housing contract and looking for furniture, meeting the rest of the dudes i’ll be working with. F from France and A from Australia. hehe.. i found that really amusing. the american dude didn’t have a name starting with N. otherwise i’d have to change my name to S from Singapore.

i’m off to bed. tomorrow’s yet another day to attempt waking up early (the previous attempts failed miserably).

the crazy clogs

these are crazy to walk on. i nearly fell forwards just wearing them. heh.. the guy who wears these have to walk down the stairs sideways because them clogs are just too long and wide.

first dinner

here’s a pic of dinner i had. we ate really late, like about 10pm. crazy!! but the food was really good. i felt really satisfied.

japan #1

i can’t believe i’m japan! i can’t believe i’m in japan!!! i’m really in japan!!

okay. i’m really in japan now. we touched down on time at about 5.35, 5.40pm tokyo time. 7hr flight was spent sleeping (i didn’t realise the plane took off), watching a couple of movies (blades of glory, family guy. okay, that last one wasn’t a movie), walking to the back of the plane to stretch them legs. economy class in SQ is really squishy! we had to eat with our elbows as close to our sides so as not to ‘cross’ to the other person’s territory. the flight wasn’t too bad save for the turbulent times. hehe… flight attendants swaying in the skies.

my first dinner was at some place in shinjuku called ootoya. yummy food. it was so satisfying. pictures on the way soon!