Boring yet interesting weekend

My weekends seldom end up stranded in hostel or even in Oyama (city of mine) excepts during exam periods. It was so back in PPKTJ, and it remains until now. But, it may change soon. Precisely, now. I've been spending yen-s like a millionaire, eating like a king for the whole summer break. It ain't the way of a student should be isn't it? Kinda feel guilty for it. Haha. Hence, I made up my mind to stop the 'stream' of my fast flowing money. Saving, should be what a student be doing. Agree? Haha.

Since I'm not going to Shibuya, Shinjuku etc (those were places I spent a lot during weekends), I started my day just when the sun started to 'burn' my butt. No kidding around, but that's the truth. Sun shines straight into my room everyday. Whole day I mean.

After had my lunch ( ma-po tofu and fried dumplings), I worked out on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Application Form. I'd took the level 3 and 2 test back in M'sia and I'm gonna take level 1 this time. Japanese system is kinda weird. If back in M'sia, we'll have level 1 as the easiest and it increase as the number goes on, but in Japan it's the other way round.

Application Form.

After filling everything up, we cycled to the post office nearby. Thinking it might be open on saturdays, we cycled there under big sun. I think anyone can guess out what happened next la. It was close. Haha. Nothing can be done but to wait for monday.

We got back, and I finally got a speaker set for my labtop.

Logicool.

It wasn't a new one. Got it second-hand from my college-mate, D.Sheng for 3500yen (he bought it for 9000yen). The speaker is part of my money saving plan. By buying it, owning a better sound system, it might prevent me from outings, spending more times on music, dramas and movies. Might it work or not, let's see. Haha.

Next, I had the most extreme part of the day. Me, D.Sheng and Agung (Indonesian senior) had our exercise session. First, we had soccer. Just imagine 3 guys playing in a damn big field, how much we had run. Haha. Next, we played basketball. Exhausted, we just had some shooting around. Lastly, ping-pong. It was 2 hours+ of non-stop sports man !

Dinner as usual, and for my supper, I had something new. French toast. (honestly I wasn't quite sure whether it is) Haha. 'French toast' came across us (me n Agung) while we were chatting and I decided to have a try. Agung was the chef, I was the . . ehmm . . . watcher. Haha.

First, mix 2 eggs, 2 big spoons of sugar, milk and butter. (the amount of ingredients depends on yourself)

Secondly, add in the bread.

Just like tat. :)

Next, of course it's time to fry.

On the frying pan.

Fry it until it turns gold in color. (isn't it always written so in recipe books?) Haha.

And it's ready to eat !

Homemade french toast.

Tada ~

Looks delicious huh?Honestly speaking, I thought the other way. Milk was over added in my opinion. Most importantly, I accidentally passed him the salt when he asked for sugar. It was a bit late when I lastly found out but we managed to 'dig' out some. Haha. Anyway, not bad for first timer. Going to try some other time. We ate while watching BPL (Barclays Premier League) matches, featuring Liverpool vs Hull City, Stoke City, vs Manchester United and Wigan vs Chelsea. We, Liverpool fan and Manchester United fan were on the happy side with victories and saw Chelsea's 100% winning record ended with a defeat at the DW Stadium. Great job Wigan ! (no offense ya Chelsea fans) :P

Late, time to go to bed.

Nitez~

It's going to be Fall but I'm not going to fall !

Pink --> Green --> Red

Was how the color of the trees standing by the road just right in front of my college changed. This is the very first time of mine, experiencing season changing in my 19 years in this planet. Unexplainable, but I just have the feeling that I kinda love the season autumn. The clothing (of coz is girls' la, guys' don't change much), and also the color around, red! (yea, that's my favorite)

Red-ish tree. Nice isn't it?

Today was the first day of school reopening after 2 months of summer break. ' Classes ' no one loves it rite? Neither I. Back to school wasn't something I waited for, yet it came so soon.

Waken by door knocks of D. Sheng, ' U no school today?' He asked. It was not long ago when I found out it was 8 am by tat time ! Gosh ! Once again, I missed the tenkou (attendance-taking). We were informed yesterday tat the list of how many tenkou-s been missed by students was put up at the notice board. And not much differ with wat I expected, I missed a total of 4. (now 5) Haha. Brushed by teeth, took my breakfast, put up my clothing n way I went to school.

As expected, test papers been given back after lecturer gave a briefing about wat we're gonna do for this new coming semester. I was the last one called, n I took it. ' Hah ? Huh ? Haha . . . ' Was wat I told myself. First I was stunned, wondering why, and lastly realizing (I mean realizing I wasn't tat confident to get good results. Tat's y i laughed to myself). It wasn't tat bad actually because I found out tat the lecturer made some 'small' mistake in his counting. I got it XX + 10 marks in the end though. Haha.

Going through those questions, these are some silly mistake made by a fool. Yaya . . me la.

1) G　 は　。。。。。　、　G　は。。。。。　(written in the test paper)

G　 は　。。。。。　、　H　は。。。。。　(asked to be changed as so)

H　 は　。。。。。　、　G　は。。。。。　(wat I changed to)

There goes my marks.

2) ' 回転 ' was the answer, I wrote　' 回軸 '

' 平向' was the answer, n I wrote　' 平面 '

Again, my marks bid farewell to me.

It wasn't a Japanese test, yet my poor Japanese spoilt my marks. Haha. Wat else could I do . . . Besides, laughing at myself ?

Lesson learned, do prepare one's language no matter wat paper u're sitting for ! *Laughs*

Ok, it's a new semester. Although classes may start with test papers' discussions, and causes unsatisfaction in me, hah ! I'm not gonna let it pull me down. High spirits just like the color red I might hold, stronger I may come in tis second semester of mine !

Summer 09 *Bonus* - Kisarazu 木更津

This was another trip of ours planned during our 2nd trip at kansai. Haha.

The story began when i wanted to learn baking cheese cake from one of my friend and we came out with the idea of making Kisarazu Kousen our 'base'. 19th of Sep, our gathering got kick started with karaoke session at a karaoke box located just at the side of Kisarazu Kousen. ' Manekineko' karaoke box over there offers great deal with just 1 yen per hour during weekdays, unfortunately it was a public holiday tat day, meaning normal price 100 yen per hour. Karaoke session lasted for 3 hours until 5.30pm.

Next, we split into 2 groups. One, to buy steamboat foods. Another, to buy cheese cake ingredients. I, who wanted to learn baking cheese cake, of coz followed the girls to shop for those ingredients.

Ingredients needed.

Biscuits, cream cheese, butter, creamy milk, sugar are needed.

Preparing the base.

We had Wei Ling n Lydia preparing the base of the cake. Crunching them into powder like, n then filling up the bottom of the tray.

80 grams of sugar.

Mix it with 2 eggs n 3 big spoons of flour.

Here comes the tough part of all. (for me)

Stirring everything up.

It was tiring to hold the machine, stirring it until it turns from yellow color to black. It took me about 15 minutes I guess.

Adding in cream cheese, n stir it well.

Pour it into the tray.

170 celsius for 40 minutes.

Steamboat session.

While waiting for the cake, we continued with our steamboat session, joined by another senior of ours, Elaine. We kept quite silent at the beginning,(I wonder is it because of having a senior with us) but everything went smooth on later.(Elaine senpai did joined in well n we had real fun with her around, meaning more joke) Haha. We talked much about our kansai trip, since some of them didn't joined us n would like to listen about those interesting things happened. Beh, was our story-teller of the nite.(she always was though) I can sense tat everyone did enjoy the trip much more than the Hokkaido one, (Hokkaido hardly be mentioned)although they keep complaining about me, the trip organizer for torturing them. Those including making them to stay overnight at a karaoke, walking wrong directions, wasting 100 yen for a short distance bus . . . bla bla bla. Haha. But, it was these tat makes tis trip interesting. Isn't it? Sometimes, imperfection does makes perfection. (they'll say, "See la ! do wrong ade somemore wan to argue !" Haha.

Cheese cake.

Tada ~

Here comes our cheese cake. We had to wait up to few hours before taking it out from the refrigerator. Just nice when we finished our steamboat. Dessert time !

Piece of it.

Lovely isn't it?

The texture wasn't tat nice i thought though. Maybe a lil bit more of flour may do. =)

We cleaned up everything, had our bath (since morning), n they watched ' 新光 ' a Taiwan singing competition via youtube. Me, ended my nite at the same time (I don't watch tat). Haha.

The next day, we head to the Embassy of Malaysia in Japan for the Hari Raya festival. It was our 1st time visiting it because it was under renovation when the time we reached here. Located about 20 minutes on feet from Shibuya Station.

Kedutaan Besar Malaysia.

It should be a place we felt home isn't it. But, for no reason we felt kinda weird inside it. There weren't much people we know inside there, except some pegawai we met during a camp held not long ago. We found our way to the food area.(tat's wat we're there for) Haha. None of us felt really comfortable over there honestly speaking. Don't ask me y. Just felt so. Most of us expected some kuih raya, rendang n so on. But . . . hmm . . . We had some talk with our MSAJ president, Ah Boon n left the place after about 1 hour later.

Ikebukuro.

We went to Ikebukuro, another shopping heaven in Tokyo. There wasn't anything special there but we just had a go on it since we haven't been to there. I guess it was my first n also last time there. Hehe.

Summer 09 - Kansai 関西

Weeks since I last wrote huh. Was on my 2nd vacation of tis summer break, exploring the other part of Japan-Kansai (no, not kanasai). Haha. Me, as the organizer of this particular trip. . . of course DID planned well (I 1st thought) n expected it to run out smoothly. Hehe.

1st of Sep, we, 9 of us from different kousen (colleges in Japan) met at Yokohama train station n took the 8.34am train. 1st destination was Hiroshima. There is a ticket named, Seishunn 18 Kippu which is a cheap ticket can be used in a limited period of time, traveling all around Japan. Yes, we used it to travel way long from Tokyo down to Hiroshima! (worth it man!)18 hours of trains, numberers of transiting, we reached Hiroshima at 11.40pm. It wasn't tat tiring as we 1st thought it would be, instead we had fun having nap in trains, shopping our meals at convenience stores, running like hell to catch our next train, n of course chit-chatting the whole way (u can't miss tis out when traveling wit a bunch of 'aunties' huh, i mean girls). Haha. Gosh, I'm crapping! Ok, it was time for bed after a train-sitting day. Journey started the next day.

Hiroshima A-Bomb Dome.

An old man . . . ?

Our 1st visit was to the famous side of Hiroshima city, Peace Memorial Park where the A-Bomb Dome was located. " Wat's with tat old man?" should u guys think rite? By passer? No. Tour guide? Yes. Ordinary tour guide? No. Free tour guide + survivor from the atomic bomb (a baby in his mother's tummy). He was there to provide extra explaination which couldn't be get from the museum. We felt lucky n thanked for the knowledge.

Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki.

This Okonomiyaki is quite different with wat we have over at Tokyo, which includes noodle. Thumbs up!

Hiroshima Castle.

Miyajima Shrine.

Went to Hiroshima city's main spots in 1 n a half day, we continued towards Himeji n then Kobe. :)

Himeji Castle.

It was expected to be a boring walk around the castle, but enormously we made through the whole castle wit non-stop jokes n laughters! Great applause to those who came out wit the jokes.(also to those who didn't get mad to be joked with) Haha.

Kobe Chinatown.

'Family'-like dinner.

This was the best part of it. Besides munching chinese food while walking down the street, we had our dinner at a chinese restaurant (forgotten wat it called). We choosed a round table, although 8 of us had to squeezed among ourselves. ' Chinese wan round round one.' Said them. Haha. It wasn't that expensive as we thought. Enjoyed. =)

Fisherman's Market Buffet.

Had our lunch at Fisherman's Market Buffet, Mosaic. Thanks to Zhong Ing who got to know about this shop from one of her senior. (do hire her as the food tour guide) Haha.

One of the 3 largest Buddha Statue in Japan.

Kobe Port.

We went to Kobe Port for the night view of the night. Those are ships' ports where we can have a nice view of Kobe on the ship ride. Said them. We took our own sweet time, sitting, talking, snapping photos . . . of those ships. God must have been kidding with us when we found out later that ship was the last one of the day. Haha, Can't belief we were bidding farewell to it few minutes ago. God bless me, we were scheduled to still be in Kobe for the next 2 days. Gonna come again. Hehe.

Our next day started pretty late since we're just heading to one destination. The one and only Mt. Rokko.

Black sheep . . .?

Sheep herding garden was the place. Sheep all around us (sheep's shit should it be) was a new experience which we can't get from M'sia.

Digging . . . cow shit ??

We saw tis scene accidentally n everyone started staring at the old man who was stretching his hand into the cow's backside, digging it's shit! Disgusting isn't it? He done it to one cow, followed by another. Noticed pairs of eyes keeping an eye on him by the sideline, he came towards us.(without washing his hands!) ' Understand Japanese?' He 1st asked (of coz in Japanese). He introduced himself as a veterinarian, n wat he was doing moments ago was checking the cows to confirm whether they's pregnant or not. Amazed huh? (sorry for those who aren't. But I was) We made our way to the night view spot, located 3.3km from the garden. We went there on foot, took 1 hour.

Nite view from Mt. Rokko.

Our next stop, Kyoto prefecture.

bla bla bla . . .

( too lazy to comment anything about those) :P

Geisha.

I'm sure many of u guys came across with te word 'geisha' before rite? They are 'rare species' in Japan now. We got our way to Gion district, Kyoto. To 'stalk' those geishas. Haha. There were of coz many other foreigners wondering around the streets, waiting for the appearance of geisha. We were like paparazzi from M'sia running n following in groups when someone spotted any of the geisha. Haha. Fun experience though.

Osaka!! The day everyone waited for.

Universal Studios Japan.

No one ever miss USJ when they pay a visit to Osaka. We spent our whole day at the theme park enjoying the rides, shows (I slept twice), parades, n souvenirs. It's kinda theme park alike with Disneyland, but said to be nicer n more fun compared to Disney. Who knows, but I do think it was indeed a enjoyable place to go. Worth it despite expensive entrance fee + express tickets. :P

Bye-bye.

Skyscrapers night-view from sky-building.

Namba, Osaka.

It was shopping again, this time at a shopping heaven in Osaka - Namba. Everyone's hands were fully-occupied, except mine. (to those who know wat i mean. shuuuuu, to those who dun know, hmm..nth) :P

Nara.

Temples.

One of the 3 biggest Buddha Statue in Japan.

We were scheduled to walk around Nara for 2 days before we go back to Tokyo . . . But . . . we decided to shorten it to 1 day, n come back Namba to shop !! Haha. Namba was just too big n we did spend another day over there. We had movie (Subway) at 0101 Mall before we carried our luggage, from the train station's lockers to the bus stop, getting the bus back to Shinjuku, Tokyo.

*Addition*

3/9

20:20

Me, " Hello, I'm Lim. I wanna confirm my reservation for 3 nites. I'm coming today. . . Right?"

XXX Hostel, " Oh, Lim . . . You're coming today??!! I thought your reservation was for 4,5,6th of Sep?"

Me, " Oh, in tat case . . . hmm . . . see you tmr then! "

Due to my 'exellent' planning, we spent our nite at a karaoke box near Akashi Kousen on tat very nite. Haha. I never went for karaoke before.(really! swear!) So, it was my 1st n I guess te numbers may not stop at 1. Hehe.

Yes, this is Himeji castle, but guess wat we found out during te visit ??!! It was once the house of one of my fren!! Beh S.Z.!(u all sendiri tau la) The castle was her house? She, was a princess?? (read ahead) She guided the road like she've been there before, explaining tis n tat. Not long before we found out tat te place we were walking was once the accommodation of the maids!! Haha. She wasn't the princess, but the maid. Haha. (thanks beh, for giving a brief talk about ur house) :P

Carine, Beh, D.Sheng, S.Ying.

Beh, " Hey fatty! U say la how much u wanna bet! "

D.Sheng, " Walao eh 瘦马, bet then bet la. 100yen! "

S.Ying, " Count me in! "

Carine, " See them, kaki-judi . . . "

We wanted to find a soba (Japanese noodle) n they quarreled about the direction. Ended up betting. But in the end, it was just a misunderstanding. Everyone pointed to the same path in the end. Wasted about 10 minutes stopping by the road side quarreling about the bet. Haha.

D.Sheng, "Come to me . . ."

Pau showing D.Sheng a paper written "11pm meet at XXX Bar."

D.Sheng. "F**k u! Dun kacau I patto!"

Ehemm.. I guess nth else need to be said huh? Haha. Actually the story started when . . . once apon a time . . . a guy named D.Sheng owned 150 yen to a gal named S.Ying. She tried hard to get back her money but failed. So, a half-guy half-gal named Pau (she said herself tat she's half. I didn't accused her), knew tat n wanted to help S.Ying get back tat 150 yen with S.Ying offering a bread to Pau. Haha. Pau started with mumbling "150 yen 150 yen" in front of D.Sheng. 1st in english, n then in japanese. Next, Pau wrote '100 yen 返し' ( pay back 100 yen) in a piece of paper n keep on showing it to D.Sheng. Finally, D.Sheng lost the mental fight, n eventually paid te 150 yen back. The end of the love story between D.Sheng n Pau. (Hahahahahahahaha!!)

There goes my 2nd summer break trip in Japan. Started n ended with joy, laughters, happiness.