- your house -

currently listening to - red fraction (MELL)
mood - tired

just finished translating an epic for my mom and here i am, trying to print out materials that i found from the internet regarding my next ronbun (japanese term for "essay/thesis/report".....). for almost 4 hours.

FOR ALMOST 4 HOURS, i've been sitting in this stuffy computer lab (doubt that i can use the wireless service for some time since my friend's sony vaio decided to start a cold war with the wireless connection for some yet-to-be-known reasons), attempting to read through my materials (dont ask me why, but this week i feel like writing about OTAKU. the theme of our ronbun is "strange japanese culture" and the like) so that i can collect the points which i want and print them out nicely in A4 papers for my draft. copy and paste from here and there and tadaa!! there you go. i've created an 80-page long..... epic.

not again...

fine. let's print them out. when i have time at night, i'll start reading through the epic. well, as a not-so-avid reader (in fact i dont really read), last time i spent approximately 3 weeks to finish the harry potter series in one go (including the long-winded, boring parts), i guess scanning through 80 pages shoudlnt take me too long (i have about a week more to finish up the ronbun)........

then i came to another conclusion. maybe i shouldnt be printing everything in one go. it's not the problem of printing how many pages (each student is allowed to print a maximum of 1000 pages per year. and i've only printed about 20 pages ever since i came here).. but i guess i dont wanna be stared at, because printing out 80 pages in one go would make people think that i'm declaring domination towards the school printer, no?

so i printed 20 pages at a time. and still, i got stared at.

for once i realised that i could really write an epic about otaku, if i hadnt omitted the english materials. yeah. the 80-page long thing was entirely in japanese. if i had included the english and chinese ones..... no i dont think i wanna imagine. dude, you've gone too far. it's just a bloody (hmm not really, but now that you've collected 80 pages worth of data) essay!! you're not even gonna use a third of the materials... what are you planning to do with the papers after writing your ronbun? use them for maths excercises??

yeah, that'll be a good idea.

one more month to doomsday.................s. i'll definitely be needing a lot of paper for calculations and essay drafts. and then............... CHRISTMAS!!!! GONG XI FA CAI!!!!!!!

too far ahead.

but then, this IS another problem to be considered. where am i supposed to go during winter? most of the foreign students here are returning to their home countries, and others... many will be touring around japan. as for me, i'm an expert in saving money (like i said.. stingy), and i decided not to go back this winter. what say i tour around japan, just like my friends? quote from cousin: yeah right. you're gonna end up spending a lot of money and visit nowhere but your hotel's toilet. none of the department stores and hospitals will be open unless you're staying in some big city, which will cost you a bomb.

alright alright. so it's either hibernating through the winter or stay with my cousin. hope my 1st long winter in 15 (?) years wont be too..... harsh on me. *iyaaa..* starting to envy those who are currently studying in the tropical countries.. like THAT RED DOT SOMEWHERE NEAR THE EQUATOR (and that big*ger* patch of distorted potato on top of it). how are you people who are living in the temperate zones????? ( / _ \ );;;;;

*****

tip of the day: another meaning of "otaku" is "your house". actually that's one of the original meanings.

rainbow!! spot the rainbow!!!!!!!!!!

fine, if you so want my pictures...

kinkakuji, kyoto.

- miyako part 3 -

currently listening to - Mikadzuki (ayaka)
mood - not so good (yet to finish a experiment report & translate an epic)

heard Abe-san saying this on TV the other day. "Jishin to Hokori aru Kuni". it means "(Japan) A country with Earthquakes and Dusts" (plain bullshit. it's a homonym of the actual meaning "(Japan) A country with Confidence and Pride")....... not trying to make fun of anything. just a pun. =p

*****

due to certain reasons, we had the chance to see the annual Jidai Matsuri, one of Kyoto's 3 biggest festivals (Aoi Matsuri, Gion Matsuri and Jidai Matsuri). according to the electronic dictionary (convenient ne―), the festival began in 1895 when the Heian Shrine was built. the greartest highlight of the event is the procession of people dressed in costumes of different eras (from the Heian Period till the Meiji Restoration Period).

the procession started at the Kyoto Imperial Palace at noon, lead by the 'Meiji Restoration' representatives. saw Katsura Kogoro, Saigo Takamori, Sakamoto Ryoma and many other heroes during that period. then it shifted to Edo Period and so on.. the most exciting one (?) was the Adzuki-Momoyama part (with main heroes like Oda Nobunaga & Toyotomi Hideyoshi), because almost every horse in the procession were overly-excited (or nervous?) that they couldn't stop swaying and making U-turns along the way. finally, one of them leapt and the man with heavy armors fell off the horse. heard that this often happened. there was once when the horse went berserk and ran around Kyoto causing panic around the city.

besides that, i guess everything else went on steadily and silently, with narrations by the emcee occassionally. was too tired to stand under the scorching sun all the way so i abandoned my phototaking role and hid in the shades. ah, then we saw Tokiwa Gozen, Minamoto no Yoshitsune's mother (the Heian-Kamakura procession, i think). as well as Seisho Nagon (author of Makura no Soushi) and Murakaski Shikibu (author of Genji Monogatari).

didn't stay till the end of the festival. instead we had high-tea (late lunch?) at a soba place. teacher's treat (again). we love you, sir (again ka....).

overall it was quite a fruitful day. didn't go shopping. but managed to take pictures with horsies and people in costumes from the olden days. and i've got pretty bubbles on my foot too. it's been approximately a day and currently i'm having problems lifting my right leg (the one with bubbles) due to muscle ache. and we were greeted by mountains of homework the moment we're back to reality.

- i have problems remembering otsuka ai -

just a tiny piece of information in addition to the previous post. i found the bgms of the ninja show unexpectedly familiar....... then it occurred to me that i've heard the exact same tunes in final fantasy 7 advent children.

(=[]=) ....................................!!!!!!

not joking.


currently listening to - fugainaiya (YUKI)
mood - a little anxious

will be representing (?) the entire U-course cohort in giving a welcome speech for the autumn-semester welcome party. 3 minutes..... each. japanese speech. and english, as well. was unfortunately voted as the representative during my absence in school. ah, whatever.

manglish saying: MAH DO IT FOR YOU LORHHH.

SPEECH ONLY MAH, WHAT SO HARD ABOUT IT WOR??

eh eh? confident sia.... i have a feeling that on that day itself i'll bite my own tongue. as usual.

*****

it's been 3 weeks (or more....) ever since autumn semester began. nothing changed. except that one of our friend's mom came and visit her. it so happened that her daughter's birthday fell on one of the days of her stay in japan. the few of us provided free labour and brought everyone to osaka (the city), kyoto and nara. had a lot of fun, but after everything was over, i died for quite a few days. i have problems waking up in the morning currently.

speaking of nara, yes, we went harvesting. *kya- kya-*

as expected, the 2 legendary jokers made a lot of noise. but i didn't expect one of them to shriek at a higher pitch than the sound of screeching tyres.

we had this boots problem when we're in the paddy field. the soil was so muddy that everyone got stuck on the ground after cutting just a few bundles. literally "stood rooted to the spot", i'd say. some among us managed to solve the problem by lifting their legs every other second. as for unskillful people like me, when i finally succeeded in pulling out one of my legs, the other leg sank into the ground. so i ended up harvesting bare footed. which was rather........ sensational.

you know, it's so cold and wet when you stick it into the slimy holes.

what the hell are you thinking. you dirty-minded people.

yeah. and the feeling of earthworms and weird-looking spiders crawling on your skin. i heard there were centipedes around too. but yeah, i'm still pretty much alive now. got nice red tattoos on my skin too, thanks to the mosquitos. and i'm sorry to say that i kinda "drowned" (into the mud) and squashed a praying-mantis with my foot, while trying to prevent myself from falling. father, i must confess..

our teacher was busy taking our pictures again. this time, we had fun spotting weird facial expressions and poses and stuff among the photos which was taken when we were unaware of it. there was one with the 3 of us caressing the piano and apparently our friend didn't pull up her jeans and her white T-back (with black ribbons) was nicely revealed. i apologise that i am unable to share more information about the weird photos on the blog as i am advised to keep it private and confidential. =p

*****

last sunday we went to a foreigner's fest. bought a lot of nice winter clothings and my total expenditure was less than 2k yen. fantastic. towards the end of the fest many of us went for the bingo game because we're told that winners are given bicycles.. and surprisingly among the 5 of our friends, 3 returned with bicycles (actually 2 targetted the same bicycle). 最強.

ahh...... time for annoying maths...... ではでは.