wednesday

my favorite mid-week day when i have nothing to do.
i sat in bed the entire morning slurping chinese ramen, reading blogs of artists, trying to learn this chinese song i heard a couple of days back, and watching re-runs of 300(have fallen HARD for the graphics of this film) and Curse of the Golden Flower (hmm.. beautiful sets & clothes that can be seen from 2continents away).
as for my fellowsufferes, they are busier than me with more worthwhile tasks like giving bloodtests on the hilltop (aka. APU), feeling relieved/relaxed after cleaning their kitchens, teaching English to a group Japanese kids.. which reminds me i better be getting ready for my english conversations lesson with a student in 30mins.
until we meet again!

kai wo toru

we left midday for the banks of the waterfront in Hiji city. the goal was to get a bucket full of shell-fish.

after a brief lunch of ham-sandos (sandwiches) we strenuosly scanned the rocks on the banks of the incoming-sea to accompanish our goal. every now and then we had little crabs running out from under the stones that we moved to see if we found more shells for my japanese parents, and their friends, to eat! to our surprise, Otousan found 2 octopuses - surely a BIG treat, cuz we werent expecting to find anything more than shells.

later, we left for the Jumonji-hilltop (close to the four towers behind APU). while some of us went to pluck take (bamboos) from the forest, two-others sat and basked in the sun besides a japanese graveyard.

on returning to our base-camp, Okaasan and us kids went to an old-old onsen.. you know, one of those 'tokubestsu na tokoro'. neways, after trying for 20mins to hike ourslves into the water, we figured that it was JUST TOO HOT - like 40degs £@^*!$% - so we extended one of the cold water pipes to make the ofuro a lil lukewarm so that we could sit in it atleast. just as we had started to enjoy ourselves 2 obaasans (grandmoms) scolded us for spoiling the kimochi (feeling) of the ofuro by making the water cold, cuz they had cme there yesterday, and it was much hotter and better then!!

heneways, so we got home feeling dizzy with ecstacy, and were welcomed with onsen-tamago (steamed eggs) - which were yummm - being from the chickens that were kept at the entrance of the farmhouse!!

and now i sit on my dining table, making this blog entry and i think to myself.. this is the "wierdest" post i have ever made!!!

Peugeot

花見（桜）Cherry Blossom Seeing

毎年のように今年も４月１日に花見をした。今回はバルベキューではなく、色々な国の１５人学生と私たちのホストファミリーと一緒に山鹿市（熊本県）に行った。曇っても、雨が降っても、私たちはスライダーで遊んでパデルボートを乗って、すごい楽しみにた。


ノート：

２００７年の桜祭りは、米国のワシングタンディーシーで「ジェフレソンメモリアル」にある３０００本の桜木の９５周年です。１９１２年に東京の人たちから差し上げたこの桜の木は、ピンクと白色の波で、人生とお祝いの象徴です。

Like every April, we went for the 'hanami' on the 1st of the month.. only this time there wasnt a bbq, instead a big bunch of kids with my Jap mum dad!!

We left for Yamaga, a lil town in the midst of nowhere between Hiji and Beppu. Even though the day wasn't as sunny and bright, we had the greatest time riding sliders and going for paddle-boat rides in the rain.

Did You Know:
The 2007 National Cherry Blossom Festival marks the 95th celebration of the original gift of the 3,000 cherry trees from the city of Tokyo to the people of Washington, DC in 1912. The trees signal the coming of Spring with an explosion of life and color surrounding the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin in a sea of pink and white.

yon sama

from the mindboggling session about verbs/adverbs/adjectives/nouns/articles blah blah blah.. my english conversations lesson moved to a better (and more intense topic) of whether "Yon sama" of fuyu no sonata was hot or not!

the mom said yes and sighed over the calmness in the brown eyes that were hidden behind the specs, while the daughter (like me) agreed on how we cudnt even find one thing that was "sigh-able" - if that beest a word - in that guy!

aahh pleeeze.. you be the judge!!!

Aint he the cutest lil monkey !?!








p.s. from "Shelly Scraps: Musings of a British illustrator in Japan"

Love Story = Sob Story

Can a movie be so good that it makes you sob/cry/weep/sigh- call it whatever name you wish - for more then 30 mins!!!
Erich Segal's Love Story clearly has this effect on its audience. I read the book when in high-school. But today, after seeing the movie, all the long-gone feelings came flying into my heart and head making me very very very heavy!!

sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob

Global Warmed Sunshines

after a tiring long week of 6 hrs of continuos talks on Globalization, I'm finally at the beginning of my winter vacations. even though i had to wake up everyday at 7 am and sleep late at night 'cuz of the presentations, i would say spending these 5 days in the politically charged class has been the BEST, from the numerous classes i've "marked my attendance" for, in my years at APU.
so now that my vacations are finally here.. i don't want to spend the first weekend sitting at home (as you must've already read in the previous post). i came up with a list of things i could do. however, as always, am a lil confused as what i should do.. so i'd highly appreciate if anyone could come up with suggestions. here's the list:

1. go to kyoto/kobe - chill out & go crazy taking pictures of temples & shrines.
2. get a tattoo
3. go shop (boots & bags)
4. take the 20,000 ticket and spend the weekend in tokyo - even though i'd probably go over the week after next.

apart from paying attention to the usual whirlpools in my mind, i've come to notice that the weather's been a lil weird this year. scary to think how the world temperature - or at least Beppu's - has changed so much so quick! last february, the city was covered under a few feet of snow, unlike this year's brown/dry/waiting-for-snow mountains.
with canada having experienced -30degs of temp, an average of 10 in japan, and indianHOTwinter.. i don't know what we are moving towards - but its going to be a helluva scary piece of (... umm...) something!! i saw the movie on global warming by Al Gore. accepted and heard all that he had to say. listened to the critics about him hyping up the whole "warming up" issue, but i think if we don't do anything NOW, we will see ourselves being underwater soon!!

heneways.. its our world as much as it is a world of the people who are destroying it, and hopefully things will change soon (for the better)!!

will scrap more later.. im going to have some beauty sleep before the long weekend.

buckets full of snow for those who haven't had any this year :)

world hold on

the beats are awesome, the videos great, the lil boy's the cutest, the sequence dance is fabulous, and the doggy is a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!!

play it while reading the post below
(adds a lil flavour to it!)

session blues

splat! splat! splat! and it started to rain like crazy on the 14th morning as i woke up.

there was nothing special abt the day, as i'd always thought of it to be :(

pretty casual.. and i managed to get a lot of work done.. hehe
covered-up for the winter session classes that am taking these vacations, after which i went to teach english to two japanese ladies. one of their daughter's made me "cashewchocos" which were YUMMMMMM as heaven (on the other hand, the woman whom i teach, gave me 2japaaneeezu apples!!!!) and i went on to teach the other lady - kimiko.. who, as the dear ol' helpful japanese that she is, introduced me to another friend of hers who's looking for an english teacher!!
a long dinner at our favourite Kuuta-ramen followed the english lessons and meeting with my new student. it was ashmas birthday, and was a lil funny wishing her happy valentines (and birth) day in the same breath.
all in all, the day was fruitful and i got tons of HAPPY n GOOD news.. it will be told to ya all in a couple of days.. justo waito a momento!!!!!

with everyone doing somethin fun away from sad beppu.. ive been having dreams if running over to somewhere during the weekend. aditis going skiing on sunday (swear, if she din, i would have visited her in Mie-ken!) rajat and ankur are having a good time in tokyo with dave. home being home, isha's having a helluva blast too.

as for me... hmm.. ppl have promised to mail me list of parties and events for the weekend, but lets see what happens.
this post has been like writing a (s)crappy journal entry.. will write more later, cuz i have to read 282pgs of World Politics for tmr's exam!!

upcoming post... love n bright-global-warmed sunshines

My name is ~

this is in response to "Chloe Fitzgerald"s email dated Monday, February 05, 2007; Posted at 11:21 AM

Your Irish Name Is...

Alannah O'Mahony

What's your Irish Name?

miss you all tons!!
p.s. look out for the upcoming grad ceremony entry!

little miss sunshine

"It may be clunky, it may not always run right, but everyone will be OK so long as we all get together and push."

by far the most (well, 'one' of the most) funny-touching-real movies ive seen.

its about a family taking a cross-coutry trip to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant. the 2days trip turns into a journey.. making them realize that the distance they travel between themselves is more than the one they covered on the road.

with a grandpa who dopes, a mom who smokes, a motivational speaker as a dad, an uncle who tried to kill himself for a "looooong reason", and two lovely kids (wont tell you their special traits!) i wouldnt say the family resembles mine or anyone else's, but the mere fact that they have their differences like any of us, and yet able to stay together and overcome problems is what touches the hearrrrt!!

hope you like it as much as i did
love n 'sunshines' as always :P

around the world

reports and cars

i have two lousy reports, along with the major end-of-semester japanese report due on the same day. when you are under work-pressure, lousy thoughts start to pop up in your head, making you tensed for no rhyme or reason. things of no importance start making episodes in the mind n getting you worked up.

so, while i was cribbing and getting pissed about things around me, i got an email informing me about a car accident that one of my friend's been in.

the boy driving the car died on the spot, while the other 2kids along with my friend had multiple fractures & were in crital conditions. she is now thankfully off the critical list - but it will be a long long recovery, with many corrective surgeries along the way. her skull was fractured and her face badly damaged. but she's alive, all there and fighting to get well - so it will be okay.

reading all this made me feel extremely small. it made me realize that there are bigger and serious challenges that poeple have to face. our own petty mind-games mean nothing when one hears abt someone facing and going through so much. the lil differences that we have among ourselves should mean little, & be resolved soon. life is too short n uncertain to worry about stupid things. i can only feel grateful for evryone and evth i have.

for those of you who go out on drives, dont do it too FAST - just keep check on the accelarator and be safe okay!
you are all too precious to lose.
love and big hugs.

new yr greetings n moo

!! happeee nuuu eeeer !!

ten days already gone by, i have a good feeling about this year.. not to mention it is the last one of my beloved university life, things might go abit crazy with thesis & job-hunting. but nevermind.. it will all come and go for the best! :)

the beginning of the year was nothing i had expected it to be.

at first we couldnt come up with a "plan" cuz it was freezing outside (compared it now its nothing but whatever), and we were quite reluctant on going to a club - you know, been there done that last year sorta thing. so we hit off the night with a big big 'last supper' as a farewel to 2006.. pasta and wine. having a lil too much fun there, we forgot to keep a check on the time, until someone said it was 8mins to midnight when we got out. we ran down the restaurant, along the road then down again into the subway only to emerge from it at 'sharp' 12:00 to see the fireworks explode infront of us!!

we wished each other and then stood staring at the "rappers" who were performing on a lil wooden stage with about 100people dancing to their tune, surrounded by stalls of food and sochu (jap alcohol - drunk HOT in winter). with the smell of fried chicken and beer, we walked off to the street performance of wadaiko, then to the numerous clubs that we have in that area - roots, zima, sports bar - they were all dim with drunk japanese/APU students welcoming us. so we decided on taking home - cards & drinks - and playing poker!!

our first walk home from the 'happening' side was a comical one with ankur doing copies of the Wagah border march (the borderline btween india and pakistan). with shrieks of laughter we entered our neighbourhood and rajat's apt (which we managed to trash superbly). we played poker all night, along with the 'HIT ME' game (dunno know what you call it) with nihal being the dealer. we had a bottle of an expensive-yummy-peach-french-wine, of which ppl kept trying to get a hold of all the time, and sme other drinks. after laughs on winning and losing ms.kim started to show us the korean way of playing poker. the rules of this none of us drunkards could comprehend, so we concluded on the fact that it was a truly lousy game :) (oopsie.. no offenses)!!

later the babes started to topple on the sack one after the other, while the dudes started their fierce discussion on their beloved 'apples & windows', with reference to the fountain(head) as well. later on they watched the first sunrise of the year and grabbed a bite of the (much abhorred now) Mac!

the following day, while the rest of the us went for an elaborate trip to scary-wet-cold Yufuin, i stayed at home sleeping n having fun, so much so that i got a homedelivery of chicken tikka masala for dinner!)

with such a good start to the new year, i wish you all a great many incidents/accidents of happiness with outcomes that are truly IN YOUR favour :P may the lord be kind and you have tons of great things knock on your doors.

keep in touch & us informed abt all that goes around thru blogging (if not mailing n chatting).

much love n happiness for the year to come..
until we meet again!!

noooooooooooo not again

pissed pissed pissed is what i am right now, on ME more than anything/one else.

so, i set the alarms at night, like a zillion of them, and think that im all set to wake up for my one-and-only class 'japanese' and guess what - I DO NOT hear the alarm when it goes off in the morning!

the goood look from Mizukuchi sensei yesterday on the fact that i should be careful abt attending my japanese classes was traumatizing enough for a long time, and here i was staring at my bloody phone at 9.35 when the class started off at 8.45.
pissed as i am at my warm bed in this winter weather, there is nothing i can do about it today except feel bad and come to school to tell him the truth.

but its difficult to wake up at 7am (wonder what am gonna do when i have to wake up for wrk at 5am or smth.. sheeeeeeeeet)and with no one else around at home, except shibika who's sleeping like a log in the other room (counting on me to wake her up) things just didnt seem to go right :P

neways..
to top things i hear the freaking pigeons on my balcony again. but this is their LAST day cuz theres gonna be something frm tmr onwards thats gonna stop them from comming.. muhahahaha.. will talk abt that later.

gotta go right now.
much love :)

ku-raa-zeeee

sitting at home all charged up. ive been staring at the comp's screen fr a couple of hours now desparetly trying to find anime schools that i can apply to. its crazy with the number of them that have come up in the last couple of years. and with the amount of people applying to them, phew! God help me :(

its a 6mnths/a-year-long-ongoing-scary-phase deciding what to pursue at the beginning of your career - or for the rest of your life for some. i've had the opportunity to witness so many people get jittery abt interviews/ resumes/ deadlines & wearing the 'black' suit (well not so much.. ha-ha!) that i dont believe its time for me to start it too!!

once again i see familiar faces making trips to the career office to fill out company seminar forms for placements. i mark one or two myself. i have no clue why, or where its going to lead me and im scared as shit about the whole "job hunting" bizz. but what the hell, might as well give it a shot (on second thoughts, im not quite sure if this is what i want to do... hmm)

the net has made the world smaller in getting what we need, when we need, from any part of the globe we choose. but its ku-ra-zeee to see the numerous options we've infront of us! its tough enough going for interviews, leave alone finding places on your own to apply to. i marvel at the dedication of those who pursue this.

neways.. break times over and i gotta get back to checking out some more anime school websites.

i only hope i have an open eye (& mind) not to let go of any opportunity that comes my way, and make the most of whatever lil time i have!

to a crazy 就職 (to those 'been there-done that' & to the ones starting the crazy ride)

pain kill(er)s

I’ve been on pain killers for over 3days now. A couple of days back I managed to get a bruise and a cut on my left-index finger (the source of which is yet to be found!) The damn finger was all pink like a flamingo’s head until yesterday, but from today morning it started turning blue with the band-aid that’s been tied by the univ nurse. Lil thing still throbs with every moment of my left hand, so much so that the entire arm’s starting to hurt now *sob*sob*

Since the univ’s hospital doesn’t seem to satisfy the intensifying pain, I’m more than WILLING & HAPPY to announce that I will consider any advice on what to do/ or what I could do to make it better from anyone whose been through this.

However, please SKIP OVER the idea of “making an incision” cuz that’s smth that totally FREAKS ME OUT, and I’m NOT going to do it!!

Thanks in a million fingers.. oops.. figures!

Welsh Corgi

this is the cutest 2min video you will EVER watch.

thinking from the POV of the lil Welsch, it must be hard for dogs to live in a cage like that. mainly cuz you can understand evth that the other dogs are barking abt, but cant tell any humans abt it cuz they dont speak your language!

smts i wonder why there wasnt ONE language everyone/thing could speak. can you imagine ever explaining the rising global tempratures to polar bears.. haha.. what a wonderful world would that be!?!

btw, just dote over the way he starts to nap!!

year's end and Zima

i hadnt paid a visit to Zima since after the graduation party we had in september.
this weekend, after a yummy satisfying meal of tacos and beer we decided not to go home and hit a club for a lil bit. we went to roots, pastel, world sports bar and a dropped a peek at a couple of others on the way, only to find them all empty because there was a dance event in Zima and another one at a club in oita.

neways.. on getting to zima, we met an 'old friend' sitting on the stairs, who got our tickets reduced by a lil - i think.
there i was, standing inside, feeling all nostalgic when i got a 'hisasheeebureee ne' from ____san (forgot her name again!)

its was 60degrees inside and the place was packed with japanese ppl sittin all over the floor. we were just in time for the 2nd round of dances. the performances alternated from 2groups of guys and girls doing their dances. the girls did the j-lo/beyonce moves. the boys on the other hand, did a combination of hip-hop and the 80s break-dance. there was this fatty dancer who shocked everyone from jumping all over the stage and doing the wildest of steps.

after the competition was over, everyone hopped on to the floor. dancers were staring at themselves in the mirror while they jazzed up the floor, so we decided to do the same. after copying them for a long long time and making everyone else run far away from us, i went back to the counter to have a lil talk with ___san. she totally surprised me by giving a free drink :) and i came back smiling ear to ear, and started to shake my booty on the dance floor again.

later at night we sat at there, occasionally going to the floor and taking breaks to see the others. lolz. 'someone' changed his clothes like a million times and kept going up and down around us. in the end, isha and i got free shiny-light hand bands from him.. aint that sweet!!

neways, i came back home smiling and feeling good about starting off with the partying season. its birthday time soon, i am going to miss ol' friends who're in far-away lands. after that there's no stoppign with x-mas and finally new years! yipee.. im going to hold on to the horses (or reindeers) and enjoy the year's end making the most of whatever comes my way!