When words mean more...

Recently, I just received news that my grandpa was warded in hospital in-line for a gall bladder operation. It seems that he has really gone down recently. Of course, this piece of news managed to set my heart pounded to the ground. Perhaps compared to many other friends that I know, I am fortunate enough to not have to witness someone of great significance depart. But this fear seems very real now.

A variation of a commonly recurring thought came back to me… How do you tell a person that you love him, when there is a language barrier? Heck, I can even say it in Japanese, but communicating with my grandparents still eludes me. How did this ridiculous situation come about? If it was me, I think that I would rather die if my grandchildren can’t communicate with me. How dignified can your life be in such a situation? And to me, I think that grandpa is the most dignified person ever. For this reason, learning Teochew has always been one of my goals. Back in my uni days, I have started to look for such resources, but it seems that this is not one subject that I can simply learn from a class-room. But if I can stumble through Japanese, I can make it in my dialect. I only hope that I am not too late…

Team Toshiba Rocks!

Met good old Kawano san to catch a game of baseball today at Yokohama Kannai Stadium. Toshiba thrashed Mitsubishi Heavy Industries flat. They didn't even bother to play the last round.
I must say that the Toshiba team really looked pretty professional. Kawano also tried valiantly to explain the rules to me. I must say that my views on baseball changed after today. It really can be a very entertaining and passionate game.

One reason for Toshiba's stregth is due to this fella:

Go... Isomura!

Our pitcher was simply shen... he went round after round without letting the opponent score a single point. After watching, its time for a little action of my own and I tried my hand at batting at the batting center. Hmm... I think that I might have some flair for baseball afterall! I can handle a 110km/h ball 40% of the time... Not bad for a first timer huh?

My Birthday

今日は私の誕生日だ。今日は皆会社に行かなくちゃいけないから、もう昨日誕生日を祝った。昨日の午後六時ごろ十三人もの友達と一緒に晩ご飯をたべた。レストランは、More`sの七階の食べ放題の中華料理店だ。あそこにはいろんな料理がある。でも、鶏肉が好きだから、フライドチキンだけをたくさんたべた。皆も、自分の大好きなおかずをたくさん食べた。それは好き好きだ。その店の食べ放題の値段は１５７５円で、本当にやすかった。是非、次回もいきたい。
後で、私たちは川崎のカラオケのBIG ECHOに行った。なぜなら、あそこにしか、たくさんの中国語の歌がない。だから、しょうがない、あそこに行かなくちゃいけなかった。直前に食べすぎたため、ちょっと気持ちがわるかった。けれども、カラオケはたのしかった。
部屋に帰った後、インターネットチャットで、シンガポールの友達と喋った。ひさしぶりだし、いろいろな事を話したかったし、長い時間チャットをした。たいてい、１２時ごろねるが、昨夜は３時に寝た。だから、今日は仕事中眠かった！

So here you have it, my birthday diary in Japanese. For those learning jap, it is completely written in plain form. And for those who can't read Jap for nuts, here is a translator website, just cut and paste, and select jap to english translation. Be prepared for a laugh though, coz these translators are remarkably unreliable, but do trust that my Japanese is correct, even if the translation seems to come from a jap trying too hard at english.
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/

A moment with too much time...

I almost never do these kinds of quizes coz they are such a waste of time. But of course there are times when I do have too much time, so this is the result. Actually I got this link after reading Winston's blog. And guess what? Both of us got the same character. I guess Winston must have given the same whimpy answers that I gave (My bad, if I am mistaken). Actually, I think that in quite a few ways Winston is like me, or I am like Winston (to be politically correct to him). So this test seems to have some QC... don't bother if you haven't watched bleach though...

Hmm... this is becoming one of the few spur of the moment posts. Not too usual from me, coz I do have drastically different goals from most other people when I set up this blog. But hey, I guess I can crap once in awhile too... btw, I turn 26 today... that leaves me with 4 years left for me to get married before 30.

Take The quiz yourself

and I wonder when I will take down this post...

Mo Cuishle

A tribute to my little darlings that had shared moments of my life. I am sorry that I did not do more for you all... I hope that you are all living well, in this world or the other...


Hard as your life is, you won't have it any other way...



And to muttt and tricsy too... you are all constantly in my dreams...

Amazing...

Ever since I welcomed 2005, my life sped up to an incredibly hectic pace. You see, I finally started official Japanese classes which now brings my tally to 3 times a week. Fortunately (or unfortunately), my sensei is ultra responsible and wouldn’t feel at ease till she had piled us with homework taken from not one, but possibly 4 sources. So it’s common for me to take about 2 hours to complete the homework. And at work, I have joined in the project in which my section is working on. Somehow, I have to try to present my research results to them in Japanese every fortnightly (no, my Japanese isn’t that good, the trick is to have LOTS of diagrams).

Anyway, so as it stands, 3 /5 weekdays are taken by classes, cooking and homework, Friday nights are spent on ‘social interaction time’. And weekends are as usual, spent on traveling.

In a very roundabout way, I am trying here to justify my long absence in blogging. (yes… you always have time… just if you want to factor it in… blah blah…) I have almost even forgotten that I had a blog! Recently, I came back to this site to check out on how the weeds are growing, perform the last rites etc. And to my surprise! Over 900 souls have been coming back to this page since the last time I updated it! ほんとにごめんなさい! Or perhaps all you voyeurs have nothing better to do…. And Dad, I am sure that you are one major contributor of the 900+ visits.

So, the jist is: I have decided to perform CPR to this site. I don’t think I will be completely nursing it back to the pink of health… more likely, it will be constantly limping on his last breath… well, its just that being actually able to perform in my job takes priority (read: study Jap). Yes… someday I do hope to graduate from Diagrams…

Also, I will try to continue from where I left off and not just simply start from a clean slate. So be prepared for the lag in dates…

Scherherazade

I would never miss an occasion when an orchestra plays Scherherazde. So I had to attend Tokyo Philharmonic's concert in the very new Muza Symphonic Concert Hall in Kawasaki. For this concert, Winston and Ivan were supposed to attend, but Ivan had to drop out in the last minute due to *ah-hem* unforeseen circumstances. So the ticket went to my Japanese colleague Shinji Kawano. Kawano san is a very interesting fella, and we have become good friends since.

Kawano san

Actually, this wasn't my first time in this spectacular concert hall. 2 weeks ago, I came with Winston to attend the Pictures at an Exhibition concert. This concert hall is even newer than our Esplanade, having just opened last year. The design of the hall is really quite unique, being much higher than most box shaped concert halls... here, the seats virtually wrap round the stage in an unending spiral. Due to this layout, many of the audiences don't get to face the orchestra squarely.

Really close to the orchestra...

Having remembered my less than ideal time at the Esplanade when we got to seat at the side wings facing perpendicular to the orchestra, I expected the worse for the sound imaging of the orchestra (Heehee, audiophile wannabe me loves good sound imaging). But amazingly the acoustics and imaging was incredible, given the angle of our seats. Looking at the hall layout, I am very sure that it had to do with the reflectors under the spiral corridor of seats. A very clever design indeed... in short, I am simply in love with the hall, best hall I have ever been actually (sorry Esplanade...).

Minas Tirith?

Pictures was fantastic... there was this shen trumpet player that blew my mind away. He is probably a star member, playing all the suprano sax solos with his piccolo-trumpet. But Scheherazade was a bit of a disappointment for me, interpretation -wise. The first 2 movements were taken at an incredible speed and the 3rd movement was painfully slow. I guess the young conductor, Mr Kim wanted to be different, but it just didn't work for me. Oh, on a side-note, I found out from Kawano san, that Japanese schools use Scheherazade for music appreciation classes in Junior High... how cool is that! And all we ever did was Peter and the Wolf, or Benjamin Britten’s guide to the Orchestra.

Snow in March?!?

Has the weather gone bonkers? Day After Tomorrow ccame true? Its snowing out of the blue in March! And a pretty heavy downpour of snow too!

White view from my balcony...

Snow starting to pile onto the cars... and it had only just begun...

And now you wonder why the weatherman is never correct...