Hisashi’s farewell

Kyoko, Takeshi and I had a farewell dinner with Hisashi at Sambal (a newly opened Southeast Asian restaurant with a Balinese theme). Hisashi is going to work in Switzerland for 8 months.

We had a really good time. The interior décor of the restaurant was really nice and the food was good too! We had a private room with cane sliding doors and a yellow canopy overhead.

Indonesian beer - Bintang

Kyoko and I laughing about something

Yes, they're drunk

Gonna make a new friend!

The lady at Yummy ice-cream knows one of the part-time teachers at my school and asked him to pass me this note! Wow, another new Japanese friend! Maybe can get free ice-cream some more!! *fingers crossed!*

It’s sad that I’m making more friends just as I’m about to leave…

First time: Going to the public library!

Went swimming in the morning, had lunch with Abe-sensei and then went to the public library to mug for my Japanese test. The town library had a separate room dedicated for studying. It was filled with students studying! Many of the students kept looking at me. Basket! Adults cannot go to library to study meh?! I ignored them and concentrated on my studying. Managed to cover a lot! Love my new keitai! Its walkman function really came to good use!

Job satisfaction is...

when a student tells you “I owe my success to you” because he passed the pre-1st grade of the eiken (English proficiency test) after you've stayed back at school for a few practice sessions of the interview test with him. :)

Homura flea market

Hisashi, Takeshi and I went to the Homura flea market in Muikamachi organised by our friend Kyoko. We had Nepali curry for lunch.

Had a free hand massage. Manicures cost 200-yen (about SS$3) per nail so I didn’t do it. Persuaded a very embarrassed Takeshi to do a hand massage too.

Takeshi and I tried making a ceramic salad dish each. The stall will take it back to their shop to burn it. We can collect our dishes just before Christmas.

I made an oval, flower-shaped one. Everyone said it looks like a cloud, and kept reminding me that it's meant to be a salad dish...tsk, don't they know creativity when they see it?

Takeshi made a very typical-looking Japanese dish – oval with some maple leaves in one corner.

Check this out! Vade from a Sri Lankan stall! It tasted really yummy!! But not exactly like our vade which is just flour and a prawn. This one tasted more like bergadil but with beans in it.

IUJ Open Day

Packed! Loads of food stalls set up by students from all around the world (European, American, African, Chinese, Mongolian, Southeast Asian, etc). Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia set up a joint stall. The Singaporean food item on sale was red bean soup. :)

The weirdest-tasting thing I had was goat’s milk from the Mongolian stall. Urghs...really couldn’t bring myself to finish it!

Students from each country put up song/dance performances. I thought the more interesting ones were:

Mongolian sumo wrestling performance

Filipino candle dance. Dancers balance a candle on their heads and hold candles in their hands and dance in beautiful, fluid motions.

The Chinese students put up a gongfu perfomance to the Huang Fei Hong song.

Hisashi, me and Adilah

Ran into my homestay family there as well and they asked me for the kaya recipe! Ha! Looks like my kaya was a hit! ;P

Daigenta Canyon

Drove to Daigenta Canyon, about 1h 15 mins away. Heard that it was a beautiful place to see autumn leaves.

New keitai!!

Check out my brand new keitai (cellphone)!!

It's a Sony Walkman keitai. It's jam-packed with loads of features. As its name indicates, the main highlight is its music player. The phone has 1GB internal memory and can take a memory card of up to 4GB. Great speakers and matching pink earphones included. Other features include 1+ Megapixel camera and, get this, a GPS navigational system! I will never get lost with this phone. Of course it's a standard 3G Japanese phone so it has email and web access as well.

The best part is it costs only 1-yen (1.4 cents)!! But I had to pay 900+ yen for the charger (which is normally the case in Japan). And, I also pay a much cheaper monthly subscription fee cos I changed service providers. Love my new phone!!:)

I feel sad today. I'm not going to see the first house I've known since I was born ever again. AND I'm never going to see the first house that I co-own.

But one of the debate teams in my second-grade class beat teams from other teachers' classes in a debate tournament. Guess what their team name was? Cindy's Candy Team. Haha. I'm proud of them for winning and even prouder that they named their team after me (thank goodness they won...I would have killed them if they didn't!)!

First day of winter

Today is the first day of winter, according to the Japanese traditional calendar, and how accurate it is. After many fine days, cold gusts of wind blew strongly and the temperature dropped to about 8 degrees in the day. The mountains are shrouded by thick clouds and locals say that it is definitely snowing up on the mountains. Pity, the autumn leaves are so nice now. They say that after it snows up in the mountains thrice, it will start snowing in the plains.

A tornado hit Hokkaido and 9 people were killed!

伊豆半島　Izu Hanto (Peninsula) Day 2

Sorry for the long absence...am finally back. Continuing with my second day at Shimoda...

干物横丁　Dried fish lane

A replica of Commodore Perry's black ship to take tourists on a cruise

Went to Cape Suzaki where there's a 4.7km-long trekking path along the cliffs to 爪木崎 Tsumekizaki. Beautiful panoramic view of the cape along the trek.

View of Suzaki

The water was so clear that u can see the corals...I want to dive!!

Finally arrived at Tsumekizaki

Lighthouse marking Tsumekizaki Cape

The manhole cover for Shimoda town is, naturally, Commdore Perry's black ship (the design on the manhole cover is usually what the town is famous for)

Nice pagoda perched on the hill

View from the train

Will Lady Luck be smiling upon me? (Originally posted on 25 Nov 2006)

Sorry for the long absence. I've plenty of stuff to blog about but no time. See, I paid a lot of money to register for this Japanese proficiency test on 3 Dec and I've not finished studying the syllabus yet! *yikes!* So I've been busy mugging (seriously, have not studied this hard since graduation!) and hoping that with some luck (all the questions are multiple choice ones...hee ;P), I'll be able to pass.

While I'm mugging, an old Chinese saying that I learnt in primary school keeps popping into my head (I've translated it into English for the benefit of my kentang family and friends):

平时不烧香 Normally don't offer incense
零时抱佛脚 Last minute want to hug Buddha's leg (i.e. san-ka or curry favour)
佛脚抱不成 San-ka not successful
被佛踢一脚 Kena kicked by Buddha

Wish me luck! I'll blog after my exam...so check back in Dec!!

P.S. Whoever said that my Chinese cannot make it?? Eat your words, Beast!!

伊豆半島　Izu Hanto (Peninsula)

After an early morning onsen bath, I left Hakone for Izu Hanto. The train ride was lovely and offered good views of the Pacific Ocean. There were a couple of rather big coastal towns and many smaller fishing towns.

I went to the southernmost part of the Peninsula that could be reached by rail - 下田 Shimoda. It's a really really nice coastal town. Because it's so far down south and harder to get to, it's a lot less touristy than the bigger coastal towns up in the north such as Atami or Ito. Shimoda was the place were Commodore Perry's "black ships" landed in 1854, an event which forced Japan out of its period of isolation and established diplomatic relations between Japan and the US. There is a model of the black ship just outside the train station.
The many Namako-walled houses (traditional warehouses that have walls fortified by joining black square tiles with white plaster) retain a traditional feel to the town.

Some have even been converted into restaurants.

Being a seaside town, seafood is the recommended cuisine. Check out my superlicious sashimi lunch that cost only 1050-yen (S$14)! The miso soup even had crab in it!

Very satisfied by my super cheap and fresh lunch, I went to the harbour in search of a dive shop. The water looked really inviting! But all the dive shops said that they were fully booked. Sigh...I'll have to go back again then! ;P Anyway, the harbour was pretty with all the yachts berthed there. (In the background is 寝姿山 Mt. Nesugata, which is said to resemble a woman lying down)

Perry's Lane (named after Commodore Perry of course), which is really picturesque with traditional buildings and willow trees lining the river banks.

下田城山公園 Shimoda Shiroyama Park. Located on a hilltop, it was previously the site of a castle, and provides a great view of the town and the harbour.

A memorial in the park commemorating the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the US. Doesn't really look like a memorial, does it? Even the flagpoles are empty!

The Shimoda Aquarium. Has the usual dolphin show, turtles, etc. Well, I guess it was the next best thing since I couldn't get to dive.

Walked along the Wakano-ura Promenade, where there were some really good views of the rocky coast.

Suspension bridge leading out to a little island, Karijima.

Tons of people fishing along the walkway to Inubashirijima. Fishing is a very popular activity in Shimoda.

Stayed in a 民宿 minshuku (cheap Japanese inn). The place had a very historical feel to it. Check out the retro passageway.

The room was clean and cozy. Nicer than the one at Hakone.

But the shared bath was so small! Plus no shower head! You have to collect water from the tap in a basin then pour it over yourself.