Sunday, April 30, 2006
It's such a nice weather today!! I am so tempted to go out and just walk or perhaps take my "chari" (short for "mama's chariot" = "bike") around but I have to study for this Japanese test I was supposed to submit on Friday... obviously it's late > _ < argh!!!
2:58 PM
Thursday, April 27, 2006
I just took the Tickle test and this is the result I got:
XXX, your true color is Orange! You're a bold, confident orange. A warm, powerful color that indicates a strong, welcoming personality, orange is the mark of people who are social and extroverted by nature. Vibrant, with an upbeat attitude, you have a bright, inviting demeanor. Energetic and fun-loving, you're a real friend-magnet. Your easy charm and unassuming manner make you the sort of person people want to meet and get to know better. Well-rounded and fun to be around, you enjoy helping others, so it's no surprise that orange also symbolizes attraction. Orange is an extraordinary color — for an extraordinary person.
OK... uh-huh...
10:34 PM
Sunday, April 23, 2006
I bought a digicam yesterday! It's a Canon IXY D70.
I had a really good deal. It came with a 512MB SD card for only 38,000 yen! I dropped my old Nikon digicam a couple of weeks ago during a drinking party and broke it... I guess I got so drunk that night. I need to take lots of photos in Tokyo! Talking about Tokyo, I bought my shinkansen (bullet train) tix yesterday. The bullet trains going to Tokyo were all full for May 3rd, the start of Golden Week holidays and so I had to leave May 2nd at night. I will be staying in Tokyo for 5 nights! I can't wait to see old friends I met in Toronto.
I also got new plants and more fishes for my tank. The blue neon tetras are so cute. I overfed them last night though. I was trying to test this autofeeder I also bought for my 5-day absence in two weeks but I didn't realize I had to adjust how much food is to be dropped to the tank. I had it on "max"... oops... poor fishes they bellies are all swollen up right now. Oh well.
an interesting experience
Last Friday night, I went to a "cabaret" bar here in my little town with the other English teachers, and a couple of Japanese friends... one of them is a respected lady here in my town. It was my first time. A "kaba" (short for "cabaret") is like a hostess bar. I didn't really want to go there because I thought it was just a bar where "pretty and sexy" (it depends how you define "pretty" and "sexy") ladies sit beside horny guys (or sit on your lap?) and drink with you... but it was not so bad... I actually went to the stage quite a few times and sang karaoke with the girls... hehe.... Guys were treated like gods in bars like this. The girls in this bar are either from Indonesia or the Philippines. They are usually recruited from these countries to work as hostesses. They usually come from poor families back in their native countries. Their reputation is usually not that good because of the kind of job they do here in Japan... but for me, it was just work for money... I had a great time with them... in fact, one of the Filipino ladies I met here in my town also works there for extra cash! I only found out that night. She is such a nice lady and I really respect her. My view of her did not change even after finding out that she works in a hostess bar. She's a good friend and I don't care what kind of job she does. Again, it's just work.
10:42 AM
Thursday, April 20, 2006
"Canadians Only Policy for Mississauga"
Check this out (taken from The Toronto Star website)...
Mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga, Canada's 6th largest city (immediately west of Toronto) and my hometown, rejected an appeal by a landed immigrant to hold an office in a municipal board in the city stating that citizenship is required to do so. The appellant criticized the municipal government for it... The appellant has been living in the city since 1978 and has not applied for citizenship in the fear of losing his (or her?) citizenship from her native Germany stating that Germany does not recognize dual citizenship. The mayor stated:
"The citizenship of your (former) country is more precious to you than the one you're living in. That really bothers me,"
Immigrants have always been welcomed to Canada and are encouraged to apply for citizenship. The mayor stated that that piece of paper (the citizenship card) is "the most valuable piece of paper in the world".
I am an immigrant myself and I strongly agree with the mayor.
Mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga, Canada (photo taken from City Mayors website)
7:49 PM
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
The Original Blog?
... I did a search on original blogs and I stumbled into this particular one... Perhaps this guy's blog is original? It seems he has been blogging since 1996... 
(images taken from "The Original Blog" website)
10:32 PM
my blog is going to be 6 years old in june!!
I can't believe that my blog is going 6 years old this June... Wow! I must be one of the original "bloggers"! I remember the site "Blogger" used to be not so big, not so popular... People back then didn't even know what a "blog", even a "weblog" back then... and then after a couple of years, blogging became so popular... and then I guess just a couple of years ago, almost everyone who has a site on the internet has a blog of their own.. how amazing! I must say I owe all of this to one person who regrettably I haven't been in contact for a long time -- all because of me. We did try though... and now that I'm over here in Japan and he's all the way on the other side of the globe, staying in touch became a lot tougher... I owe this blog to J... Click here to find out more about the man who has inspired me to blog... and he is probably one of the few original bloggers who is still blogging today. He has the wicked-EST blog ever! You have to check him out... Mine's a joke nothing compared to his... Way to go, J!
10:06 PM
あくな hot さくな新な目上さ学校教育課なー！
10:34 AM
Sunday, April 16, 2006
OK... It's been a really long time since I last blogged... a month! So sorry. It was just plain laziness. Well, I was also very busy in the last few weeks with my big move. My employer asked all of us English teachers here to move to a 1K apartment (in Japan, "1K" means "1 room and a kitchen"). I love my new apartment! So much better than the old house I used to live in. It's a lot smaller and so it takes less effort to clean and this apartment is really really clean, modern and quite new.
What have I been doing in the last few weeks other than the move? Hmmm... Well, I really haven't been working much because of spring vacation... but school already started and so I think I'm going to be very busy in a few weeks. I have been studying this correspondence Japanese course I enrolled in... well, not studying very hard... I should really. I have been trying to finish Final Fantasy X2... god, it's really taking me forever to finish this game. I bought the same game 2 years ago while I was still in university, started it but then couldn't finish it because I was so busy at that time. That was back in Canada. When I came to Japan, I bought the same game but I couldn't get the English version over here and so I settled with the "International Version+Last Mission" which has very little English... actually, the only English in this game are the voices and so, everything else is in Japanese! It's been so hard! I can't understand half of what's been going on in the game but I still manage to play and get the idea although I can't play it very well... I've been doing trial and errors most of the time. Thank God I can read Japanese but not good enough for me > _ < I've been enjoying it so far. That's all I did this weekend, play FF... I really want to finish this game so I can play FF XII! Oh, FF XII graphics are amazing!!
Anyway, what else? Hmmm... It's Cherry Blossoms season here in Japan right now and so lots of beautiful cherry blossoms all over the place. They're really pretty no wonder the Japanese are so crazy about them. Just last Sunday, I went to a "hanami" (cherry blossoms viewing) in a park in my town. Well, "cherry blossoms viewing" also involves getting drunk and being noisy under the cherry blossoms tree... It was really fun. Here are some photos I took:
"Golden Week" is coming and Tokyo, here I come!!! "Golden Week" in Japan means a series of holidays which usually fall on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the first week of May... Lots of Japanese people travel somewhere usually outside of the country for vacation... but I'm going to Tokyo and stay there for 5 days and just hang out with my friends there. I'll be taking the "shinkansen" (bullet train) and it would take me a good 5 hours just one way... so far but it's worth it!! I'm so really looking forward to it!
11:16 PM
