July 2011
1 post
New world record.
Okay I haven’t blogged in a hell of a long time, but this just got my attention right away.
New world record for individual 3x3x3 solve by Felix Zemdegs. 5.66 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v_Km6cv6DU&NR=1
June 2011
5 posts
Day 65
Oh hey. How nice to see you again.
Is what I imagine you’re saying to me. Minus the anger and disappointment of my absence. I do admit, I have neglected updating for much too long. About 3 weeks at my count. But I have been taking notes every day. Now I am wondering whether I should write individual daily entries, or just write a post summarizing each week.
In any case, Friday May 28th was...
Day 64
Another day, another midterm. Newspaper Japanese is particularly hard, because it’s all about kanji. You know how hard it is to learn a set of Chinese characters, then relearn them all over again with different readings? It’s fairly hard. I feel like I just said something stupid.
But with that out of the way, the end is within sight. Just another week and midterms are over! We can always worry...
Day 63
Stayed up too late the night before, randomly surfing the net. Woke up super tired, so I made myself a whole flask of coffee to last me for the whole day. I thought I’d definitely need it for my reading comprehension test in any case, since it was my first class and I wanted to concentrate.
After a rushed breakfast of peanut butter toast, I got to school extra early to study a bit more before...
Day 62
It’s Tuesday. Gotta love Tuesdays. Especially if it’s the first Tuesday I spent not going to school even though I have no classes lol.
Wake up extra early, because sleeping in on a day off seems like such a waste. Don’t you ever get that feeling? So excited to wake up when you can sleep in, and dreading to wake up early when you have to. Our minds are naturally rebels.
It was a busy day though,...
Day 61
Remember how I had my business Japanese test last Friday? Probably not, but I did. And that means I don’t have to go to my business class in 1gen today.
/rollsinbedlaughing
I still manage to make myself rush off first second block though…which was definitely not a good idea. First off, I was drifting everywhere in the rain on my fixed gear bike. Secondly, because I got knocked off my bike by a...
May 2011
21 posts
Day 59-60
It’s vacation time baby!
Waking up early to bury my face in breakfast and prep a lunch, because today, we’re leaving for a weekend vacation at the Kinosaki hot-springs! I’m going to throw Saturday and Sunday together since everything over the weekend seemed to be a blur anyway.
This trip has been planned for over a month now, I think, so it finally coming to pass seemed surreal at first. It...
Day 58
Finally, Friday. Fridays are exciting :D
Even before entering into Friday, I had an enlightening dream. In it, I dreamt that I had already finished my exchange term and returned home. Facing the monotonous mundane life that was apparently my usual life back in Vancouver, I despaired at not having done enough in Japan. I yearned greatly to do things so vividly, and raged at the fact that I felt I...
Day 57
Thursday. The day that comes before Friday.
Thursdays are boring. Seriously. My notes read:
Quiz Better at reading kanji Mukade
I guess I’ll talk about this a little. But it’s going to be boring. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. And there’s probably going to be some foul language.
First class on Thursday, Newspaper Japanese. So early in the morning. 1gen. We basically have a quiz every week...
Day 56
The following quote comes from my notes.
There are 3 justices in this world:
The killed. The killing. And those watching.
I don’t particularly remember what this little quote was regarding, or where I heard it from, but I guess it’s got something to do with that case about Bin Laden. There are many perspectives regarding that bit of (remarkably astonishing) news.
Consider for a moment, the fact...
Do you know how to Pokemon? →
I only got 36/40. Do better.
Day 55
Tuesday! Day off! Not. Time to do errands.
I’ve been putting off picking up my alien registration for a long, long while, and I figured I better hurry to get it if I plan to not get into trouble with the cops if they ever pulled me over one night about my headlights/music. Remember, you have to have the light on at night, and listening to music while riding your bike is technically a no-no.
But...
Day 54
I’m a terrible person. I’ve fallen into the trap that is procrastination. The beast that devours all university students (except for the select few as they are monsters themselves), procrastination hits us like a virus that can rival, nay, beat the plague. This whole ordeal has reminded me of a model I learned back in business called the ‘punctuated equilibrium model’. And now I can’t find the...
Day 53
Alright. 3 hours of sleep. Let’s hop on a bike and ride our ass down to the palace and watch one of the three great festivals of Kyoto, in this case, Aoi Matsuri. For those of you who don’t know Aoi Matsuri, use wiki. TLDR; The Aoi Matsuri (葵祭), or “Hollyhock Festival,” is one of the three main annual festivals held in Kyoto, Japan. The other two being Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the...
Day 52
Sorry it’s been a long hiatus since I’ve last posted. By my count, probably 5 days. But fret not, I think I’m going to attempt to write every day individually, if not for (the collective) you, then for my own pride. I’ve already done a cumulative post in the past, and I don’t want to do that again if I can help it. Also, due to the content that I would have to write, it would turn out to be quite...
Day 51
Friday, the only day I usually do sleep in on. But for some reason I find myself waking up around 7 and then putting myself back to sleep quite often lately. Probably because the light from the outside is so intense in my room. Thinking of getting a screen to block out the sun, so I may sleep in the shade.
Now I want to watch 300.
It’s been a full week of classes and Friday is a good break since...
Day 50
We’re halfway to a hundred days and I still feel like I’m dreaming. Whatchu think about that? In the words of my friend Raynor, “Japan is the best”, in many respects of the word.
I forgot to mention, but I picked up these candies from Daiso the other day. If you’ve watched Grave of the fireflies, you may recognize exactly what these are. It brings a manly tear to my eye.
So over the past week, I...
Day 49
Fast forward, it’s the next morning.
09:00 – I still have time before my 10:40 class. I’ll just close my eyes for a bit.
10:30 – open eyes and scream like a little girl.
And so ends my perfect attendance. Sigh. Better late than never suppose?
With a raging headache the strength of a thousand earths, I sat through my first class, reading comprehension. I was fine up until Hirai sensei asked me to...
Day 48
LATE BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA.
Good morning, this is your wake up call. Are you ready to piss excellence? Get up, get dressed, and get out! Because it’s PISSING RAIN.
I thoroughly enjoy giving people wake up calls, as my voice is the most scratchy and deep right after waking up. The exercise of committing wit into my wake up message also gets the gears rolling in my noggin’. And in strong contrast...
Day 47
Random picture I took a while ago with my iPhone at Daigoji, that I rather like. It has nothing to do with today, but I’m going to leave it here.
<rant>
Welcome to the most difficult class in the world, Business Japanese. If you are unawares, in Japanese, there is a form of formal speech which involves a whole different set of vocabulary and grammar. This speech is called keigo, and it is...
Day 46
It’s one of those days, where I look back at my notes for the day, and all it says is:
“I did nothing.”
And that’s literally what it said.
Truth be told, I did spend a lot of time studying, doing homework, cooking, and goofing off on the trap that is the internets. Not to mention I was stuck on thekollection.com for a while.
Anything worth noting? Probably just dinner and the movie we watched...
A little music.
What kind of music do I like? I like a plethora of music, including rock, metal, punk, classical, jazz, electro, trance, dubstep, and everything in between. It really depends on the mood, as I believe applies to most people.
I may want to listen to dubstep, but I know I need to sleep, so I put on some classical/jazz. If you can sleep to wub-wub, I applaud you sir/ma’am.
Today, my good...
Day 45
A beautiful Saturday, so what better to do than to go out with your Tennis Club and enjoy some BBQ? Team Advantage (the tennis circle I’m in) organized a huge BBQ get-together for existing and new members to just chill, socialize, and have fun. Quite the well planned event too, I must add.
I’m still not too sure where the area is that we went to (probably near Arashiyama?), but it was by a river...
Day 42-44
I seem to only be apologizing at the beginning of these past few posts, and so let’s not be a combo-breaker. Sorry! But I’m going to condense these three days, or I’m going to shoot myself with my sore wrist from typing.
Too long don’t want to read: Wed: Capture the Flag + Pho! Thu: Fujinomori acrobatics on horses! Fri: Jun leaves, school again, Talledega nights!
Wednesday! We decided a few...
Day 41
Today we go to Osaka. But the day starts a little something like this.
It’s the next morning. Knock on the door, “Hey are you going to be able to make it to Osaka today?”
“Of course I can, I said I could yesterday didn’t I?”
“Okay then…”
You know that feeling you get when you suddenly realize something is astray and search your memory for what could possibly be the reason for your uneasiness? When...
Day 40
The last few days have been a blur, quite literally. Let’s start this story starting Monday morning, the last day of class before the start of Golden Week (or rather just 3 days of break with school on the Monday and Friday before and after the break //sadface). My apologies for having slacked off, but if you read my story, then perhaps you will come to understand why it is my belief I...
Day 39
So I guess writing blogs at 4am isn’t the brightest idea. Ended up sleeping in way past what I had planned. And so, I missed what seemed to have been an extremely boring game for the Canucks. It’s 1-1, keep it together, boys.
In any case, after a quick shower, I begrudgingly sat myself down to do all the homework due tomorrow. It was around 2 when I started, and I had to be done by 5:15 since we...
April 2011
33 posts
Day 38
I was supposed to do my homework today, but guess what, Skype happened. Got caught up talking to family and friends. Before I knew it, I was playing video games with some buddies back home and it was dinner time here.
So we didn’t exactly finish off all the food stuffs from yesterday, you know what that means? Crazy good food part 2! NABE! Nabe is a type of hot pot it seems. Where you put a bunch...
Day 37
A day late, but it’s Saturday, so I’ll write about my crazy Friday night.
I totally forgot, but Thursday night, Vivianne made bubble tea for us. It’s been a while, so 本当にありがとう！Thanks so much! Been a while since I’ve had me some bubble tea, and it reminds me so much of Vancouver. And so, I am truly grateful.
So it was Friday, which meant one class and party times :D Got to get down on Friday’s,...
Day 36
Every morning, when I wake up, I read this little book my friend Rebecca lent me called “The Book of Awesome”. It somehow always unfailingly helps me start the day with high spirits, even though I may be in a rush or forgot to do some homework or grieving at how poor I am. The book details individual instances or happenstances that are definitively awesome. There’s a title, a body of text, and it...
Day 35
「生きるべきか、死ぬべきか、それが問題だ。」
“To be or not to be, that is the question.”
Nothing like learning a bit of Japanese interpretation of Shakespeare.
I’m sure everyone is aware of the girl’s only trains in Japan. For those of you who do not, there is a bit of a social issue with ‘chikan’ or molesters who prey on girls/boys on the trains. But more often than not, the victims are girls. And thus, some genius...
Day 34
I may or may not be getting sick again. But I am coughing. Ugh. Guess all that biking in the rain was a bad idea after all. Go figure.
So it’s Tuesday, which everyone knows means a day off! No classes today, but I ended going to school again. Why? Of course to meet my buddy who came back to Ritsumeikan after studying at UBC for two terms!
Masa! In the flesh :D Welcome back to Japan!...
Day 33
I left my bento at home again. Anyone know a good trick to make me stop forgetting? I’m tired of being hungry during 3gen. Das sigh.
There has been one guy, who I shall not name, who has been consistently skipping class in A1. So one of us usually grabs the work sheets and brings it back for him at I House 1. Today, it was my turn to take upon this duty. Upon arriving home, I made my way to his...
Day 32
I learned something today. Traveling can be very expensive. Some think this is common sense, and to a certain degree, I understood this myself beforehand as well; however, actually going on a trip like I did on Sunday and watching all the money disappear from my wallet like a super-effective-magic-trick, quite frankly, frightened me.
That being said, I’m very glad I went to Kobe. What can I say,...
Day 31
Welcome back, it’s Day 31, a full month one might say. Here are some things I’ve learned that I found odd and blew my mind:
1 Don’t wear your slippers into your room/onto your carpet, it’s really dirty. Really dirty. I don’t think I can ever go back to no slipper life. 2 Don’t do that Chinese thing where you rub your wooden chopsticks together to get rid of splinters, it’s rude in Japan....
Day 30
Yesterday was a bit of a long day, so I ended up not blogging as it would’ve been at around 3:30am or so. So let’s being yesterday’s story with “sleep”.
Sleep, an essential part of one’s day. Incidentally, I was lucky enough to get 10 hours of it the day before yesterday. So I woke up Friday feeling like gold. After all, I only had 1 class yesterday, and that wasn’t even until 1pm....
Day 29
Bacon just isn’t as good unless it’s coated in sugar now. This is bad. In any case, I ended up prepping a whole box so I don’t need to wake up early to make it for a while.
Perhaps it was because of the lack of sleep last night (about 5 hours?) I kept nodding off in classes today. It got worse as the day progressed. In Poli-Econ people were poking at me to wake me up during lecture....
Day 28
So four weeks has gone by way, way, way, way, way, way, way too fast. Feels like I haven’t done enough with my time, but I guess that’s a simple fix. Must be more hardcore with my time. /rawr!
My day didn’t start all too well though. It wasn’t until I got to school that I realized I had left my bento (lunch) at home. Even paying for the 70yen coffee in the morning is starting to hurt, but I need...
Day 27
Missed a day again. Don’t worry, I’m alive. The following is a story about yesterday.
Woke up, picked up my camera, and took a picture of what was on my table.
Tuesday, my one day off during the week. The day of the week I will henceforth look forward to unconditionally. I woke up rather late and ate some leftovers from the previous night. Potato salad! Even went out to buy the bacon to make it...
Day 26
It’s Monday! And since my fridge is near empty from lack of groceries, I just had some natto with Tabasco for breakfast. This is quickly becoming one of my favourite snacks because it’s cheap AND tastes awesome. I don’t care what some people say about natto, it’s amazing.
Speaking of food, I’ve decided to try to pack my lunch more often and buy less on campus. It’s just so much cheaper that way....
Day 25
It was moving day today. By that I mean I moved from the first floor up onto the second floor. One may ask why. Let me answer this one fellow.
I’ve already spent considerably more time in the second floor kitchen than the first floor anyhow for one. Another reason, and a more important reason, is because the men’s washroom is on the second floor. I’ve spent too many trips up and down the stairs in...
Day 24
Waking up at 09:30 sharp, I got myself ready for the long awaited skype-reunion for the Canuck’s second playoff game with my friends in Vancouver. It was good times seeing my good ol’ friends: Helen, Romeo, Matthew, Chris, Daryl, Dustin, and even Linton haha. Talking and having fun with them reminded me of what it’s like to be back in Vancouver, and I suddenly realize how different it’s been the...
Day 23
Today, I made lunch. It was glorious and completely unplanned.
Potato salad!
Ingredients: a dozen golden nugget potatoes, quartered, roasted with olive oil and parsley half an onion, chopped a cucumber, cubed green onion, scallion mayo + lemon + pepper bacon more bacon then slap some bacon on top.
Mix with bare hand. Then eat.
We were supposed to go do some hanami with people in SKP...
Day 22
As I mentioned before, the dorm has multiple kitchens, and I like to take advantage of this fact. Grabbing a plate from the second floor, I cooked on the first floor and used their sugar to make more candied bacon. Then I proceeded to eat on the second floor because it got too full downstairs. Good times for all.
Even though I had 1gen today, it’s not so bad since school is only about 10 minutes...
Day 21
IT’S BEEN ONE WEEK of school, and THREE WEEKS of Japan.
Thoughts?
I love Japan, I love school, and thus I conclude life is good. But honestly, this city is just so pretty I can’t get enough of it. Classes so far have been at a challenging level, but not so hard that I want to give up. I’m in Japan, and I plan to take this opportunity to learn as much Japanese as I can, while having as much fun as...
Day 20
Considering that tomorrow will be my third week here, I’d like to think that I’ve settled in a bit already in Kyoto. I don’t know my way around too well just yet, as there’s always a nice senpai or someone to show me around, but losing my way is fun as well. Especially in such a safe city as the one I call my home right now.
Yesterday, I made ad-hoc candied bacon, but today I made the real deal. I...
Day 19
Gonna keep it short.
Ever since I came to Japan, I’d like to think I’ve had pretty regular meals. It’s weird having to cook most of the time, but I enjoy it so hey. It’s fun thinking about food, and groceries, and what I might make for my next meal. And so this morning while frying up some eggs and bacon, I went on a whim and decided to try for candied bacon. Should’ve put the sugar on first...
jubobu asked: just a suggestion: if once school starts and you don't have as much time to make lengthy blogposts, maybe you can do a "picture of the day" thing similar to Project 365 on days that you are short on time.
Day 18
It was one of those mornings where you wake up and start regretting how much you had drank the night before. The light gave me a terrible headache and my throat felt raw from the whiskey burn from the previous night. I grabbed my giant bottle of water from the fridge and nearly downed the whole bottle before sinking back into my bed for a few more hours. The soft sheets and rock hard pillow...
