day 33 - cinema

today i go and watch ironman 3.
the only cinema i knew of was in tachikawa and when i check internet it also says that the nearest is there so i headed there.

the 3d show was at 3 something and i reached by 1 something.
then i saw that there was a cheaper 2d version at 5.50 so i bought ticket to that instead.

that means that i had 4 hours to kill.
which i did.
spectacularly.

first i had to eat something cos i was starving. desiring a taste for home, i went to macs, and indeed, it tastes just like in sg. only the serving smaller.
i order the golden week special and when the burger came i literally opened it to look for the patty.
i thought they forgot cos the burger looked so small.
IT REALLY WAS THAT SMALL. THE PATTY WAS HIDING BETWEEN THE EGG AND THE BREAD.
i'm just saying. not complaining. it still tasted good...

after that, another 3 hours plus to kill....
i remember that yesterday at church one of the uncle say that there was a nice park near tachikawa station and that today there was a once a year event happening.
so i go back to the station to see if i could smell out any clues as to how to get to this place.
there's signs to this park nearby so i decided to go check it out.
but first, as a season traveller, i went to pang sai. this way i would have no emergencies later.

after that i'm off!
today i realised very early(but still too late) that my camera got no sd card.
GOOD JOB, cannot take picture and bring for nothing.
but nevermind, skilled photographer dun need good camera. so all my shots today is use my handphone to take. haha.

so i walk and walk and walk and eventually i find this

ok cool.

showa is one of the emperors of japan and a period of japan's history is named after him.
so like now is the heiwa period or something, showa was the period before now.
i was born in the last year of the showa period
so my birthday here is 昭和 63 年 11 月 17日.
cool eh?

welcome welcome

anyway so this park is a memorial to showa and i walk abit more and i reach the entrance.
and then i realise that there is admission fee.
"huh, go park also must pay?"
but i go closer and it turns out today no need to pay. cos is SHOWA DAY.

how nice!

so i happily walk in and snap away.
basically, even if pay, the place is totally worth it. very cool park to come see, and if japanese, totally worth coming with friends.
the place has so many things to see and do.
it's a huge park and got lotsa open space to chill, fly kite, picnic.
there are futsal courts and soccer field
there is water play area for kids
there is big playground for kids
there is basketball half courts
there is big garden to go and see
there is traditional japanese garden to see
there is barbecue area where got lotsa pits and tents and sand on the floor(almost like a beach area)
there is a disc golf course
there is even garden for u to let ur pets run wild.
I DUN THINK I EVEN COVER EVERYTHING.
so anyway, here are just some pics that i took

disc golf looks fun. throw a frisbee into a frisbee thing

let your pets run wild here

customary flower shot 1

customary flower shot 2 (so pretty hor)

entrance to japanese garden

fountain at the front

futsal court - FREE

BIG OPEN SPACES

a lake in the japanese garden

lost children here

full soccer field

some big bouncy thing for kids to jump on. *.*

big lake that u can rent boat to row around in

so like that, 3 hours burned. i didn't even see all that i wanted to see.....
next is back to the cinema.

this is what it looks like inside

and very cute, there is this staff that will come and make announcement like i dunno what she was saying and also that the show is starting soon.

lady talking but nobody listening

after the show i went back to hachioji and i ate mos burger for dinner.
and the burget look and tasted so much better than mac (of course but i still love macdonalds dun worry).

good stuff

so with that i came home and did my essay.
need to submit soon so i had to rush.
at the same time i realise my feet smelly. (from all the walking i suppose. and maybe cos i haven't change socks in a while)
so i do work with my feet sticking out of my door.

after i bathe, my feet still smelly! i could not take it.
likely it was cos i never wash my feet (or body) with soap so i went back to toilet sink to wash my feet with soap and now it's ok already i can sleep in peace.

so yup. good night.

day 32- I'M GOING BLIND

something wrong with my right eye.
vision blurred, i hope i am just being paranoid. will rest and see how it is over the next few days.

today i went to church with hugo from ntu.
haha the sermon was one of the longest that the pastor preach so i think it was hard for him to stay awake, cos his jap not so good, so can't understand most of what is being said the entire morning.
still, i think the people there are a very pleasant bunch.
i plan to visit other churches around the place, but i will go back there the most i think.
simply because it's the first church i visited here. :)

after service and a very nice fellowship lunch and a birthday celebration for a 70 year old aunty,
we went to tachikawa cos i wanted to get my eyes checked and also to get contact lenses.
on the way we felt hungry so had a donut break.
of course at mr donut, where else?

had the hello kitty donut today. cos real men can

after that we go and do my contact lens.
basically a very long and arduos process which i am lazy to talk about.

at the end of the day i got 1 month worth of contacts,
an eye check that tell me that nothing is wrong with my eyes,
and the eventual struggle of having to put contacts in eyes that are just too small.\

after that is back home.

pretty much normal things happening after that....except for....

TUM TUM DUMMMMMMM

keys.....BIKE keys!

now i have the power to rule the streets.
"dear japan, your motorways are no longer safe anymore. please avoid them and take the train. the king of the road has come"

i've got a ticket to ride~

so that's it for today. good night

p.s. decided to just include this to show what i am feeling in my right eye:

an accurate representation of my current visual predicament is shown below

what i see with my left eye

what i see with my right eye

like i said, nothing serious....

31 - bch

hung over from my 500ml of fruit beer with 6% alcohol the night before.
truly an alcoholic, yes.

clearly i am living the wild life here..
haha no la. woke up at 8 to go play football but when i reach the field all i saw were girls playing football.
seems like no practice today. pfft.

so i come back and do laundry and stuff.

i felt like i was handling drugs today.
yes drugs. very potent BCH.
a social drug, but of course still dangerous if eaten in large amounts.

the BCH came with my resup.
left 2 whole kg of it with me.
if the customs knew, they would have confiscated for sure. laws are very strict here.

so anyway, to make my BCH last for a long time,
i was advised to keep in the freezer.
but to do so, have to package it properly.
i will now show you how to package it should you ever need to store your own BCH.

you will need:
scissors
a clean working surface
plastic sheets
and ziplock bag

so BCH in its original state looks like this

potent stuff. keep away from children.

i did not have plastic sheets so i made some with those food plastic bags

plastic bag

super sharp surgical scissors(note the alliteration)

plastic sheets prepared

next is to place the solid BCH slabs individually separated from each other by the plastic sheet

pure BCH. do not leave exposed to air for too long.

first slab on the plastic

carefully laying each piece on top of each other

once done with the layering, wrap up everything with the remainder plastic and slot it into the ziplock bags.

in the ziplock bags, ready for storage

some cosmetics

after that, all that's left is to put it in very very cold place for storage
freezer is a good idea

my dorm's freezer, now BCH's new home.

and that's it!
simple. i wish anybody copying this all the best in your BCH endeavours.
good night

day 30: beer

today i did not go to soccer again because i wanted to rest my leg still.

however, at the same time, some of the guys wanted to go out eat ramen, then comeback and party.

so i followed them.

basically we went to a local ramen joint, and i ordered a big bowl, which i regretted shortly after...
it was just too big. like huge big upsize mega supersize.
i barely had anything for lunch, and yet i could not finish.
this was the first time in my 30 days here that i could not finish my meal.
crazy big.

lunch was funny.
i wanted to order some udon so i join the udon queue.
the menu instructions were in kanji (which i could not read).
so when the aunty ask what i want, i just order the first thing that i could read on the menu.
"ka-ke udon"
she then ask me some question which i could not hear or make out.
and i mumbled some answer.
and so what did i finally get for lunch?

one bowl of udon with some leek sprinkled on it. that's it.
so u can imagine how hungry i was by dinner and you can imagine how big the bowl was if i could not even finish it when i was hungry.

anyway after dinner we went to a nearby lawson to buy beer cos we were going back to the dorm to play playstation 3.
yes you read that right.
playstation 3.
bobby from ntu brought his ps3.
he actually did it.

I CAN'T BELIEVE HE BEAT ME TO IT.

so yup, playstation party.
i don't really drink, so i bought me a fruit beer. but not the jolly shandy type.
the MAN type. got 6% alcohol one.
and i bought the big can(500ml) somemore.
so i guess now i can truly call myself an alcoholic.

we headed back to the dorm and bobby set up and we play and i drink my one can of 500ml very MAN fruit beer and then after that i feel abit tipsy.
but that only made me play better, so i beat everybody at racing. haha.
seems i actually drive better when i'm drunk.

so after that we play some other games.
and then i go and bathe and then i come back and play a bit more.

and then when everybody has gone away to sleep.
me and my viking danish friend are left and he says he wants to talk.

hmm.

seemed abit strange at first because he seemed unusually sombre.
like something happened like that.
so anyway i say ok. and we talk. and indeed something happened.
he got a bit aggressive with someone in his room when he walked in and didn't recognise the stranger.
so guess he was a bit shaken and worried that it might escalate to something undesirably serious.
so we talk loh. just chat about like life here. what's different from our homes.
what we might miss, some of our thoughts about japanese culture and stuff.
and then after that i think abit late already. and i think maybe he calmed down abit too.
so we left it there and i said good night and then went off to sleep. hope he's feeling better.

interesting encounter...

and so after that i head back to my room.
and while walking past another dorm living room thing,
i saw a guy awake and the tv on.
and the tv was predominantly green.....
..................
green........
......green.......
.........

which meant.........
...........


FOOTBALL.


it was the champions league!
HUH! champ league replay on tv!?
din know they had that.
and someone watching!?
HMM!

in my mind i was thinking: "if can watch champ league full match, even if is replay i dun mind loh. somemore the quality so clear"

so i walk in and just check it out.
and it turns out to be this guy i know!
his nick name is "hime" (princess). i forget his real name.

haha.
his facial features abit feminine, like soft features. that's what i feel.
but anyway he say that his nick name is hime but not because of the princess association.
i dunno why he call himself hime though.
maybe i will ask him next time.


ANYWAY.
we have a short conversation about football. i am standing at this point. he's sitting

then we move to the topic of how i play abit with the soka team and then he say he used to be in the team.
then i: "HMM"

but now he doesn't play. instead he coaches.
HMMM.

he says that, in fact, he intends to go germany to study football coaching after he graduates.
HMMMM!
by this time i am sitting down. facing him. fully engaged.

what a nice conversation i had!
really one that i enjoyed thoroughly! the first time since i came here that i felt like that, regardless of whether with a local or exchange student.
we talk about various things, not just football. but it was a very comfortable exchange.

he's a linguistics student.
studies german now and knows some german works and also did a couple of literature modules.
HMM!
so i could speak to him in my broken japanese and he could understand me(i think because of his discipline) and also he reply me in both jap and english and his english is generally better than most japs that i've met too.
his pronunciation good. (again, i think because of his major)
and also he like, know about the world more. aware of the world and current maybe. relevant.

so i felt that i clicked with him.
after a while i think should sleep too.
so i told him i better go sleep.

then i walked away happy.
hopefully can chat with him more in future!
yay i made a new friend.
:)

ok. so that's it for the day.
goodnight.

last week

oh dear i have not written in ages.

it is because i have had so little to eat, and it has also been so cold that i went into a week long hibernation.

basically one day i was just so hungry(after not eating for 2 days maybe?) and it was also so cold, that i curled up in a corner of my bed with my blanket and just slept.

7 days later i wake up and not only am i still hungry, it is also still cold.
and now it is raining too.

HAHA.
LIKE REAL.

last week my parents came (i.e. resup)
so i have been living and eating well the past week.
so well that i have not had the time to write.

welcome to japan!

let me just do some update of what has happened in the past week,

last sunday i went to church.
it was all in jap, i didn't know what the pastor was talking about, but halfway through the sermon, she took out a rice cooker and talked about it for a while. i found that funny.
still, i could follow when they read the bible cos i could figure out the references, so i read the texts in english first before looking at the japanese bible.
and the songs i could sing too (yay) cos they are all translated hymns (some english and others from various european languages) and got tao gei, plus the words in hiragana.
the church is very small and the people are all old uncles and aunties.
i felt quite at home. haha.

these are the church members :)

their fellowship lunch!

and then later that day i met a SUMO!
FINALLY!
one key objective in my stay here met (as the title of this blog would suggest)

and then after that i linked up with my family.
i went to ohkubo station to meet them ans stay with them for the next few days.

after that i went  back to dorm while they remained there for another day or two before they made their way down to hachioji to stay too.

so we went all about town for a couple of days. went to places like harajuku and roppongi and did a lot of shopping and eating and sleeping and eating and walking and eating. and eating. and eating.
and eating.

food has been good since we met. my stomach has been glad.

and then erwin left on saturday while my parents left on monday morning.

and then back to normal school life for me.
but what is quite not so normal now is the stuff that i got from their stay.

some of the new things in my stock now include:
rice cooker
knives and scissors for cooking
sleeping bag
travel haversack
soccer bootSssss
smart phone
climbing shoes
an instax
street soccer shoes
more clothes
lotsa food
and
BAKWAAAAaaaaaaaa

oh

and lotsa MONEH.

now i am a rich man and i can live above the poverty line.
furthermore,
last sunday, while waiting for my family to arrive, i was killing time in tachikawa (the place from which i go to church)
and right there....i found a citibank!
and i tried drawing money.
and i could!
so now, i have access to cash too!

the citi never $leep$

so that's about the end of my resup story.

some other things happening in school,

i got the teaching english job thing so i going to have extra income from now on which will likely translate into donut dollars. will write more once i have my first session ba.

also, the uni soccer team is cool with me joining them for soccer training. so i have been joining quite regularly and it has been fun.
only thing is they train at night and i don't wear specs when i play with them so it's really hard for me to see at night without contacts or what. i might get contacts soon maybe cos i forget to bring from sg.
the other thing though is i just strained my groin muscle (i think cos it's so cold and i never warm up enough, so pulled a cold muscle). hope it does not take too long to recover.

OK.
THAT'S it. update of a week compressed in one post.
one more hour to champ league.

and to end things off, here's a pic of the sumo i met.

friendly sumo

day 17: quest for donuts

today weather was not bad.
still chilly, but sunny too, so warmer abit.
i spent my morning thinking about what i would do today.
was told that soccer was cancelled(at first was going to play with the koreans at 3.30) so that freed me up completely.

i realise that i have been talking and thinking about mr donut for quite some time and so i thought that it would be good to chronicle some of that donut goodness.
hence, i decided to go out and buy some donuts.

hugo: where are you going?
me: i'm going to buy donuts.
hugo: you're going OUT just to buy DONUTS?
me: yes.

so that was how one conversation went.
to get my donuts, first, i needed transport (cos i surely wasn't going to ride the bus there).
i asked my roomie if he would lend me his bike, and he said yes!
it's the blue one with a blue chain in the middle of the bike building.

ok.

blue body, blue chain. meet my ride.

so having gotten my transport, i headed out!
cycled the same way i jogged yesterday, but of course i made a turn eventually to head to the city centre.
it only took me 15 minutes to reach there!
that may be faster than bus!

but once i reach i try to find a place to park my bike.
some places put cannot park so i never park there.
i dunno what to do and i scared to lose the bike cos it's not even mine.
eventually i find a place that i think i can park at without getting into trouble.
so i park.

parked.

next, i go for a walk around the place since i reached so quickly and the weather is so nice.

nice weather in the city. bright and windy.

of course first i ensure that mister donut is still there and won't go anywhere.

so i swing by the place with the mac and the mister d.

here's the mac

and here's mr donut :)

after that, it's off to exploring! 

i walk down the street and i turn into alleyways and i cross bridges and i venture into neighborhoods

so basically i just go wherever i feel like going and hope to spot something interesting there.

walking past a play ground

policeman directing traffic

a boy i met

dunno what he's looking at, but he seems happy

here's a baby at a playground that looks a little like someone i know

after taking in the sights and working up an appetite, i head back to mr donut to buy my tea break.

so, now, let me introduce to you, the legendary Mr Donut.

take a bow. note the moustache. pure class.

please also note, not smorkinng on floors 1&2

after entering the shop, i spend 400 yen on 4 donuts.

2 plain pon de rings. 1 chocolate pon de ring. and 1 churros thing.

next i get on my bike(which is still there, thankfully) and i head over to the nice longkang i wrote about previously.

glorious day by the longkang

opposite me are people playing touch rugby. and all about there are people jogging and cycling, people taking their dogs for a walk, people fishing. and all sorts of people la.

playing touch rug

i find a place to sit down and enjoy my fine donuts and my oolong tea that i brought from the dorm.

my 4 fine donuts and my oolong tea (stolen from a welcome party)

so this is a pon de ring

it is made up of connected "pons" so u pluck them out and eat. like so.

after i eat finish i head back to dorm.
but since it's still so early, i head to skool to kick about.....by myself.
so i take a little detour and end up in the middle of no where high up on a hill somewhere.

welcome to the middle of no where

but i manage to find a slope that leads down to what i thought would be my skool.

i take the slope down( really steep slope)

and i'm right! i end up right at the front of my skool. haha.

steep slope of death

leads me here!

so i go to the soccer field and i kick for a while, and after an hour or so when it started to get dark(and cold), i finally headed home.

when i reached home, a local jap gave me a food ticket cos he didn't need it.

how nice. i got a free dinner!

so that caps off a fine day with a nice hot meal. 

ticket to food

so now time to bathe and sleep cos imma goin ta church tomorrow! (i hope)

and then after that it's off to receive my family (and MONEH. yahoo)

ok.

good night!