Somebody

Please kill me...

Not Ready...

I'm flying off to Thailand tomorrow for Thai U-Go. However, I must say that in all aspects I'm not ready for it at all... Haven't been playing many serious games recently, I have already lost some touch... Sometimes I look at the board, I don't even know what to think about... And the most important thing is I totally screwed up the IV League today...

The first game... I must admit I underestimated my opponent. One move that he played so fast, I didn't even doubt for a second what he was thinking, and in the end my stones got eaten through ladder... In the later part I still had chance but I had already lost my fighting spirit... I wasn't able to recover from the shock even after the game... Until now I still can't believe it happened...

I feel even worse because it's a team competition and not an individual one... I didn't take the game seriously enough. In the end our team lost by 2-3 in the first round. Technically we still had chance, but I felt that our morale was down already...

In the end we lost another round and got Team 2nd... We were all aiming for first...

This must not happen again. NEVER.

I swear, as long as I'm playing for NTU, I will not lose any more games. NEVER.

We will do well for the next competition!

On another note, today one friend told me that I need to be more expressive... Yes, actually I know that, just that I don't know how to achieve that. He said that people who have the technical skills but are poor at expressing and presenting themselves don't stand a chance of getting a job. And leadership skills are important too. That's where CCAs come in... So far my only leadership positions are in Weiqi, MAC and Astro, but all of them were not done very well... I do hope I can expand my portfolio further by joining other CCAs in Uni... I guess I will think about that problem in Sem 2.

I have to say I suck at expressing myself. Everytime I would run out of words. Is it because my language skills suck, or what? Can a person like me be able to talk more freely and socialise more? If anyone could give me some advice it would be great...

All in all, I'm not ready for so many things... Life is tiring...

And once again... I've been told that I've grown skinny...

Dying to Live

It's amazing how everyone of us live to die in the end, but most of us are dying to live as well...

Anyway, haven't updated this blog for so long, thought I'd better write some stuff about my uni...

Now I'm halfway into recess week, but I seriously don't feel like I'm having recess at all.

If only it could be recess weekS instead of recess week.

My Thai U-Go trip starts this coming Sunday, and hence I'll be missing one whole week of lesson after my recess week... And that includes one CA and one lab report.

Yeah many people say I only take 16 AUs so should be quite slack, but somehow I have a hard time managing my studies...

Well I can say I brought it upon myself because I've skipped some lectures, but the rhythm just has not been right since uni started...

And now I'm already half-way into the semester... So many things unsettled...

I think after I come back from Thai U-Go, I shall spend most of my time on my studies, and catch up on all those that I'm lagging behind... I shouldn't be worrying or troubling myself with anything else... Yes...

Mind Awaking

So, university has started.

Without me even realising it.

I wanted to do full mental (and physical) preparation before uni starts.

But it seems like I have failed.

Because until now, I've still not perfectly organised my uni life...

How should I study?

How should I prepare for my lectures and tutorials?

How should I make new friends?

All these are the things I've seem to forgotten through these 3 years.

Though maybe point number 3 was never clear to me.

Sometimes I really feel like going back to secondary school.

Or JC also can.

Those days were just great... I didn't have so much to worry about...

But, unless there's a time machine I can never go back in time.

Which means that I need to face reality.

And the fact that, my UNI LIFE has started.

No more staying up until very late (or not sleeping at all) and not being able to wake up.

No more FBing, checking my email, or reading manga the whole day.

I need to get myself organised, and start studying, and do what I should do.

For the first semester, what I hope to achieve is just to settle down first, and make sure everything goes on smoothly....

Once that's done, I'll start considering about other important things...

Eyes on me

"I saw you smiling at me

Was it real or just my fantasy"

"I kind of liked it your way

How you shyly placed your eyes on me

Oh did you ever know?

That I had mine on you"

Such a Sorrow "First Love"...

After listening to this song many times, I still think that this song is too sorrow to be a song about "First Love"... Tears almost came out of my eyes every time I listen to this song...

Why must being in love with someone be so sad and sorrowful?

初恋 (First Love)

Song: Oku Hanako (奥華子)
Lyrics: Oku Hanako
Music: Oku Hanako

I thought I knew everything about you
Your clumsiness, sensitive tongue, awkwardness on the phone

But there was one thing that I didn’t know
And it was the fact that you didn’t love me anymore

When did we start drifting apart?
Why couldn’t I see it?
We had so many memories together
I thought we’d be together forever

You’re a friend, a friend from today onwards
I won’t say I love you anymore
Don’t go so faraway, I'm contented as long as I can see you
I won’t call your name, I won’t walk beside you
I won’t call you without any reasons
So don’t say that we’ll never see each other again, please

I still have that old habit of taking photos
When I find something beautiful so that you can see it too

I imitated the way you walked and talked on the way to the bus stop
I’m sorry that I sulked or got angry over small things
I should have been more honest

Your face, the way you talk
I hate how much I still love them
Don’t go so faraway, I don't mind as long as I can see you
We can be friends, it doesn’t have to be anything special
I won’t cry in front of you
So don’t say that we’ll never see each other again, please

You’re a friend, a friend from today onwards
I’ll keep telling myself that
That place that you will smile
Is somewhere we can’t go anymore

Walking past the cherry blossoms, Looking up at the fireworks by the sea
When the dry leaves fell, and on days of pure white snow
You were always there for me, I wouldn't want to forget that
I won’t call your name, I won’t walk beside you
I won’t call you without a reason
So don’t say goodbye anymore, please



The Original Japanese lyrics:

あなたのことは何でも知ってると思ってた
不器用なことも 猫舌なことも 電話が苦手なことも

だけど私の知らないことが一つだけあったの
あなたがもう私のことを好きじゃないということ

いつからすれ違ってしまったのかな
どうして気付けなかったのかな
二人で過ごしたたくさんの思い出
これからもずっと一緒にいると思ってた

あなたは友達 今日から友達
もう二度と好きなんて言わないから
これ以上遠くに行かないで もう見るだけでもかまわない
名前で呼んだりしないから 隣り歩いたりしないから
用事もないのに電話したりしないから
だからもう逢えないなんて言わないで お願い

綺麗なものを見つけるとあなたにも見せたくて
すぐに写真撮る癖が まだ今も消えないまま

歩き方やしゃべり方を真似して バス停まで歩いた帰り道
小さなことですねたり怒ったりごめんね
もっと素直になれたら良かった

あなたの横顔 あなたの口癖
悔しいほど好きなままだから
これ以上遠くに行かないで もう見るだけでもかまわない
友達でいいから 特別じゃなくていいから
あなたの前では泣いたりしないから
だからもう逢えないなんて言わないで お願い

あなたは友達 今日から友達
そう自分に言い聞かせてみるよ
あなたが笑顔になる場所は
もう二人では行けない場所

桜並木を歩いて 海辺で花火見上げて
枯葉散る時も 真っ白な雪の日も
いつもあなたがいてくれた それだけは忘れたくないよ
名前で呼んだりしないから 隣り歩いたりしないから
用事もないのに電話したりしないから
だからもうサヨナラなんて言わないで お願い

My Neighbour Totoro

Played "My Neighbour Totoro" theme song on piano...

Very very tough one... I'm not referring to the difficulty, but the length... Because the song is so long, it's hard to avoid making mistakes, especially for an amateur like me... Well finally I managed to take one video without many major mistakes, but sorry for the sound at the beginning... It was totally unexpected... If I get a new piano, I may retake this song again.

I watched Totoro (The Movie) when I was a little kid. Until now, it's still fresh in my mind. It's still one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies (actually I like all Ghibli movies, haha). I remember I used to sing this song anytime, anywhere. Will play other songs from Totoro in the near future.

Well I said that there are no major mistakes, but there are still a lot of minor ones... I know exactly where they are. And the dynamics... I listened to the original piano solo, there weren't much dynamics, so I decided to add in some myself, but I guess it wasn't very obvious... If anybody has any idea how to improve the sound quality, please tell me! I really appreciate it.

If you realise, the mood of this piano solo is totally different from the original song (with vocals). The pace is much slower, and that's what I like about this also. (Slower so I'll be able to play with less mistakes, hehe~) If gives you another feeling from the original song, but nevertheless it's still a nice song.

Silvestar

Please meet my new canon compact camera, called Silvestar, or Silvy for short.

Actually, initially I wanted to buy the Canon IXUS 300 HS, because the design looked cool. But after some consideration, I decided to take this smaller one, which has a higher resolution than the 300 HS. Well I know that higher resolution doesn't mean better picture, but I feel that this camera has a better picture quality than 300 HS. I heard 300 HS doesn't give good picture quality also. And most important of all, this camera is so small!! It's so flat and tiny that I feel I can lose it anytime...

The picture quality really seemed quite good after some testing. Well it doesn't have certain functions like burst and panaroma, but I don't think I would be using them anyway... Actually my main reason for buying this camera is because I needed a video cam to record my piano videos... My previous Canon compact camera Ixy is lost... But well, now I can basically take this anywhere and take as many snapshots as I want, without having to bring around my bulky DSLR, Canny. But of course, for serious shooting I will still bring my Canny along. This one is just for leisure~

There are still some interesting stuff which I haven't test out yet. Will post the pics after I've tried them out~

Dream

Maybe, I'm still in a dream.

Will I wake up?

Fate or Regret

Will it continue?

Or will it end here?

PLEASE HELP US!!!

I know not many people read this blog, but if you happen to read and you haven't seen the following website, please take a look at it now...

http://www.petitiononline.com/weiqi/petition.html

This is for the Singapore Weiqi Team. It's about the Singapore National Olympic Council not letting us go for Asian Games even though we have enough evidence to show that we can get into top 6. Besides, we don't even want them to spend a single cent, why don't they still let us go?

So, please support us by signing the above petition if you haven't done so. Thanks!

I seriously hope that we can go. Not only for myself, but for the whole Singpore Team. It's such a rare chance...

http://www.petitiononline.com/weiqi/petition.html

Seriously Naughty Organisation Committee

Why? Why won't they let us?? We are confident that we will get at least the 6th place, and it can also be seen from our past performances, but why?? Why are they so strict and stubborn??

I can pray to any god, but maybe praying to TCH is better? Oh I really hope they will change their mind... I don't want to see such a good opportunity gone... It's gonna be so fun for so many reasons!!

Onegaishimasu...

Reminiscence

After watching certain videos of the recent Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Michigan, I started to recall my secondary school days... What was I doing when I was secondary 4? The only overseas school trip I remember was the one to Perth, and I think it was end of term camp. But it wasn't fun at all... I really regret not creating better memories during that time... What have I done?

Anyway, I think this kind of trips are very nice, especially because you can go with your friends. Seeing all those winners jumping and running around and shouting excitedly makes my heart feel warm. I like this kind of "touching" scenes. But sometimes I also hope that I was the one in these scenes...

I also suddenly recalled my trip to Thailand during the SEA Games 2007. It was really a fun trip, especially the part where we rode the police truck back to our accommodation. I wish to have this kind of experience one more time. If we only Singapore would allow us to go for Asian Games...Can I say "please"?

I know that I can start by creating more memories from now on, but sometimes I feel I may not be up to it. The reason being that my brain is really kind of getting slow... I have problem thinking. Don't know whether it's related to my accident in Hawaii, but I really think there is a problem. Nowadays I have a hard time organising my stuffs, and my weiqi level is also not going anywhere, if not down. Sometimes I would just stare at the board blankly, without being able to think of any moves. That's why I'm kind of worried about my university life, whether I'm able to cope with it...

If there's a solution, I hope to find it before my uni starts.

Recently my work at IPPUDO has been quite smooth. Though sometimes people still call me slow, but at least I'm getting less scoldings now. Actually I don't know why people call me slow when I don't see a lot of people walking faster than me. Maybe I just give other people the impression that I'm slow... It also shows the importance of first impression. Anyway, now I'm seriously thinking about whether to quite IPPUDO early, since I need to time to prepare for my uni...

Have been thinking about many other stuff too, but I shall not write about them here today...

Smile

My manager asked me today whether I'm happy working at IPPUDO. I said yes. And then he said if I'm happy, then I should smile.

I felt weird. I always thought that I was smiling, but apparently others did not see it that way. My tutee also once told me that I'm a very dull person and did not laugh a lot. Maybe I was just smiling in my heart, and did not bring it out. Other people can only see what's on the outside, and cannot see what's inside my heart. Hence the only way to let others know what you are thinking is through your expressions, body language, and words.

I thought that maybe I need to learn how to smile. I know that smiles are very important. They are the antidote to many problems, and just a simple smile can bring happiness to everyone, including yourself.

However, in Japanese, there is something called 作り笑い, which means "forced smile" or "fake smile". You use it to show others when you want to achieve certain motives, and they are not smiles from your heart. I don't want to learn that. I know that after I go out to the society, I will need to do that many times, but I don't think I will like that. It's just too fake. What's the point of smiling on the outside when you are pulling a long face on the inside?

I want to smile right from the bottom of my heart. I want to smile because I feel happy. And I hope my smiles can bring warmth to everyone around me.

Smile! =)

All the Best

All the best to Sadaharu for his conquest on KGS! Hope the rank graph won't go down again.

All the best to the knight fighting the Z Monster! Hope he has a swift victory.

All the best to... myself?

Hmm


P.S. Congrats Yuri for finishing the 10 km run even after drinking the previous day. Haha~

The Attack of the Z Monster

I realised that there is a more serious problem to solve other than Sadaharu's problems.

It's the problem about Z Monsters.

Every morning, after I wake up and shut off my alarm, I would be attacked by Z Monsters. They would either pull me back to bed, or make me fall asleep on my chair. I would wake up again after a while, but this cycle continues, sometimes until late afternoon.

Recently the power of the Z Monsters have been getting so strong that I can do nothing to resist their spells. I'm absolutely defenseless. I've tried many things, such as putting the alarm clock far away, setting many alarms, drinking alcohol the night before, switching off air-con, etc but all never seemed to work. I thought that it's about the time I sleep, but last time I tried sleeping before 12 am, and the same thing happened. It's just like a level 10 hero fighting a level 100 monster. There's nothing I can do.

Well that's not the only weird thing. Recently the Z Monsters will start attacking me at around 8 to 10 pm, but after 12 am they will just disappear. All my will to sleep will be gone after 12 am. Why?? Z Monsters are sleeping also?? They never attack me at the correct time...

Seriously this problem has been bothering me for quite long... Sometimes I wonder whether I should go see a doctor...

I think if this problem is solved, many of my problems, including Sadaharu's, will be solved as well.

Slay the Z Monsters!!

Sadaharu Off Form

Recently, the poor Sadaharu keeps losing... And as a result he's getting further and further away from 7d... I can only say that he's off form, but is that the only reason? It seems that he can't really think properly now, the way he used to. He's not able to concentrate on the game, and will misread on a lot of situations. Judgement skills are also deteriorating. A lot of games he was actually winning but made a mistake at the last moment and lost. Something has terribly gone wrong. I don't know since when but it's like suddenly, he doesn't know how to play the game anymore.

Solution? Hmm, I don't think there's any quick solution to this problem. He just have to deal with it slowly. Restart from the basics. Revise through all that he has learnt and make sure he remember. Because I think his memory is getting from bad to worse... And he has forgotten a lot of things that he has learnt already. Do more tsumego. Make sure to read through every move, and never look at the answer unless he has done that. And try to concentrate more in games. Once he starts playing, he shouldn't think about anything else. Just the game. Look at the game, and the game only. Never stop thinking. Never stop reading. Hopefully by doing this for a period of time, the mighty Sadaharu will come back.



PS. As for my work at IPPUDO, it's still fun, just that there are some problems. My manager once jokingly told me that if I stop moving in the kitchen, I die. That taught me that I should always be doing something. The other manager also told me that I move too slow, and that's the reason I'm not given as much work as the others. Well knowing that is kind of sad, but I must take it as a lesson. It just shows that I'm not doing good enough. If I have a negative attitude and start thinking that everybody don't like me or something like that, nothing will change. In fact things will get worse. Hence I think it's important to keep a positive attitude. Take other people's criticisms as a chance for you to improve. And once you improve, things will get better.

Service

Now I know why the service fee is kind of so high. Because we the service staff have to serve other people food while being hungry ourselves!!

Ok, that was a joke, but really that's one of the things we have to endure as a service staff. Serving and smelling all the delicious food makes us even hungrier, but still we cannot do anything. We still have to serve our customers with a smile.

Anyway, having worked at IPPUDO for several days, I must say it's quite fun. At first I was worried that things might go wrong, but it went quite well. All the staff and managers are very nice, and taught me from the beginning how to do staff. Whenever I have any queries I can go and ask them also. I do make mistakes, but they guided me patiently. At peak hour, there are a lot of customers and the queue outside is very long, hence there is almost no time to rest(by rest here I mean stand around and do nothing). But then that's also the fun of it. I feel pleasured every time customers say "Thank you". Maybe I haven't met any difficult customers yet, but so far I like it here.

Communication is also very important, because you won't be able to do a lot of things at once. Hence in the restaurant there will always be people shouting around. I think that's one good way to make people do things. Without all the shouting, there will be much less motivation to do well.

Now I only hope that I won't create trouble for the rest, and will be of help.

Oh yeah, and the Ramen here is really nice! Definitely recommended for those who like Japanese food~


PS Gotta go register for my driving soon...

IPPUDO

Registered for part-time work at this restaurant called Ippudo. The pay is not considered high, but I just want to gain experience while killing time, so it's ok. I heard some people say that if you never work in a restaurant or convenience store, you are not a man. So I'm going to become a man now? They say that it's good to work at these places and get scolded by the boss. It will be good experience. Well I don't really want to get scolded, but no choice if I do something wrong...

Getting kind of really nervous now. Serving and greeting the customers, settling the bill, showing them the menu, I have never done all these before. Well, since I've never done before, all the more I should go and do! I believe my stay there will be a valuable one.

Something Wrong With Body...

3 days ago I had a headache after playing 2 games on KGS. So I decided to stop and go to sleep. But the headache persisted until the next day. And my whole body felt weak. I felt better after a nap, but still I decided to cancel my tuition. Wednesday was quite ok, but today symptoms of flu start showing up... My rubbish bin was filled with tissue paper in an instant.

Oh god, I hate getting this kind of illnesses and the thing is I don't even know how I got it. I don't believe playing games on KGS can make me ill, and neither do I think I have eaten anything wrong. Maybe I magically breathed in the ash clouds from Iceland? I don't know...

I desperately need to exercise... But I can't exercise in such a condition...

Let's hope it will get better tomorrow.

Nice Day

Went to Japanese Association from Bugis after the Asian Games Training today. There weren't any direct bus, so I took a cab. I told the Taxi driver: Japanese Association, and he said ok. At the cross road between Adam Road and Farrer Road, he went to Farrer Road. At first I didn't realise, but I did find it weird why the roads were not familiar. Furthermore there was a huge jam at Farrer Road, and it took us very long before we got out. He suddenly asked me: "It's the Japanese Association at Holland Road right?" And I said calmly: "No, it's at Adam Road." He looked a bit stunned, and said had to make a big circle. Even though I was kind of angry, I still kept my calm as usual. He said he won't count from the meter, which had gone up to $16, but I was prepared to pay like $10. What I didn't expect was that... He actually meant I don't need to pay!! He told me: "It's okay. Sorry for wasting your time."

Such a nice driver!! I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about this here, but I've never seen such a driver before. I think any normal driver would still claim a bit of money, and would try to argue a bit, but he didn't. Besides, I also some fault, because I didn't state the road name and just simply said "Japanese Association". But he didn't say anything about that. It's good to see this kind of nice people around. I said "Thanks.", and got off the car.

trunter's Best Sakura Song

April is the month of Sakura (or is it?) Sadly I don't have any memories of seeing any Sakura even though I lived in Japan before. I hope I can go sometime.

Among all the "Sakura" songs, I feel that this song is the best. The melody is very nice, and it fuses well with the hip-hop/rap style of the group as well. You can really picture the scene in your head if you close your eyes and listen.

さくら

歌：ケツメイシ
作詞 & 作曲: ケツメイシ

さくら舞い散る中に忘れた記憶と　君の声が戻ってくる
吹き止まない春の風　あの頃のままで
君が風に舞う髪かき分けた時の　淡い香り戻ってくる
二人約束した　あの頃のままで
ヒュルリーラ　ヒュルリーラ...

さくら散りだす　思い出す　意味なく
灯り出す　あの頃また気になる
変わらない香り　景色　風
違うのは君がいないだけ
ここに立つと甦る　こみ上げる記憶　読み返す
春風に舞う長い髪　たわいなことでまた騒いだり

さくら木の真下　語り明かした
思い出は　俺　輝いた証だ
さくら散る頃　出会い別れ
それでも　ここまだ変わらぬままで
咲かした芽　君　離した手
いつしか別れ　交したね
さくら舞う季節に取り戻す
あの頃　そして君呼び起こす

花びら舞い散る　記憶舞い戻る
花びら舞い散る　記憶舞い戻る

気付けばまたこの季節で　君との想い出に誘われ
心の扉たたいた　でも手をすり抜けた花びら
初めて分かった　俺若かった
この場所来るまで分からなかったが
此処だけは今も何故　運命(さだめ)のように香る風

暖かい陽の光がこぼれる　目を閉じればあの日に戻れる
いつしか君の面影は　消えてしまうよ　何処かへ
あの日以来　景色変わらない
散りゆく花びらは語らない
さくらの下に響いた　君の声　今はもう

さくら舞い散る中に忘れた記憶と　君の声が戻ってくる
吹き止まない春の風　あの頃のままで
君が風に舞う髪かき分けた時の　淡い香り戻ってくる
二人約束した　あの頃のままで
ヒュルリーラ　ヒュルリーラ...

そっと僕の肩に　舞い落ちたひとひらの花びら
手に取り　目をつむれば君が傍にいる

さくら舞い散る中に忘れた記憶と　君の声が戻ってくる
吹き止まない春の風　あの頃のままで
君が風に舞う髪かき分けた時の　淡い香り戻ってくる
二人約束した　あの頃のままで
ヒュルリーラ　ヒュルリーラ...

花びら舞い散る　記憶舞い戻る
花びら舞い散る

How To Train Your Weiqi

Went to watch this movie called "How To Train Your Dragon" yesterday. The title of the movie sounds like it's for kids, but I heard that adults will be able to enjoy it as well. Other than the simple storyline, it was quite a decent movie. The movie is about friendship, courage, and changing people's lives. And most importantly, about dragons. However I'm not really pleased with the main dragon's (the night fury aka toothless) designes. It is cute, yes, but I feel it can be improved. I do like the small little dragons which bite people. I would like to keep one of them as a pet if possible.

But other than training my dragon, I would like to know how I can train my weiqi... Don't know if it's because I've been playing too much games, recently my attitude towards weiqi has changed. I'm not so serious anymore, and plays as though win or lose doesn't matter. The game against JC yesterday was also like that. The whole game I didn't even bother to do much counting of territory, and only realised I'm losing nearing end-game. The game against Ms Cho also. Made 1 stupid mistake in early game and that's the end of it. Really felt like slapping myself after I played that... It didn't use to be like that...

Seriously I'm kind of stuck on how to improve now. Everytime it's the same problem. Unable to read properly, unable to count properly, unable to judge properly. I had my goals in weiqi, but at this rate I'm not gonna achieve it.

I think currently I need to think of ways to change my mind set... I'll try to play more seriously from now on, be it online games or games in real life. But at the same time I must train not to use so much time. Haiz, weiqi is so hard...

Dancing Duck

Went to watch Duck's Chinese Dance performance at NUS yesterday. There were 10+ performances in total, and Duck appeared in 3 of them. Although I don't really understand Chinese Dance, I could see that they danced beautifully. There were some modern dance in between too, and some of them were quite funny. Although in some parts I felt that they were a little bit out of synch, but I guess it's alright since they are not professional.

After the show Duck was like a star with 2 major fan clubs fighting over her. In the end we managed to reconcile our differences and and take a picture together with the star. (Though the above pic is not one of them...)

I'm starting to get envious of people who can dance... How I wish I could dance like them... Even a little bit...

21st

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=165010&id=545686096&page=6

This year, it's my first time organising a party for my birthday. The previous years were just small gatherings, but I've decided to do a BBQ party this year.

But I didn't expect so many people to turn up!

WOW!

I apologise for being a bad host, because it's kind of my first time organising such things.

But I'm really glad that all of you came.

Thank you everyone!

As I have said, even though it's a birthday party, but all I wanted to do was to create a chance for many of us to get together.

So I hope you all enjoyed your time as well, like me.

It's a pity we didn't take a group photo together... Maybe I drank too much.

Probably I'll try to organise this kind of party every year.

If there are any suggestions feel free to tell me.

And... I think you all know what my birthday wish is...haha.

But I do have another one which I never said out...

And that is...

Well I don't think I'm saying it out because I'm scared it won't come true, haha.

Anyway, so I'm 1 year older now.

I'm off to doing what a 21-year-old should be doing.

Thanks for all the presents!

Tokyo 2010

(For the full photo album check out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162793&id=545686096&page=7)

Was quite busy with other stuff after my return, and hence this post was delayed...

Still, I want to write something about my trip to Japan this time.

Some of you may know, but I have always considered Japan as "home".

In fact, to me Japan is more like my hometown than China, even though most of my relatives are in China.

Therefore, the moment I reached Japan, everything looked familiar to me.

The people, the buildings, the trains...

Everything was so nostalgic.

It almost made me forget my objectives of coming here...

However, since such a long time has passed since I've last been here, there were some things I was not familiar with. An example is the train system. In Tokyo itself has tens of different train lines, and there are so many different companies. Other than the trains there's also the subway called Tokyo Metro which operates the same but using different stations. It's kind of confusing unless you are very used to it... In fact on the first day when we reached Tokyo, it took us about 3 hours to get to Ginza from Narita...

The hotel was called Hotel Monterey Ginza. Didn't look especially good on the outside, but the rooms where nice. They also had LAN cables, which made my laptop useful. Too bad I forgot to bring the cable to transfer photos from my Canny...

The streets of Ginza were quite new to me, as I've never been there before. I heard that that this is the most expensive region in Tokyo, and from the price tags in shops I could see that. Still there were some shops that were affordable, like UNIQLO.

After the Opening Ceremony, every one of the 16 players were required to go up and do a self introduction and show "determination". I wasn't exactly sure what show "determination" meant, as I also didn't hear the Japanese part, but well, that wasn't very important. In fact this is the first overseas competition I've attended where everybody had to do self-intro. I think it's a good idea, but it's only achievable in this kind of small competitions.

Honestly, before seeing the participants list, I still thought that maybe I could achieve good results. But after the opening ceremony my confidence was totally gone... I could only hope for good luck.

Competition venue was at an Internet Forum nearby. Nice, comfortable environment. They even assigned people to record down each and every game. Maybe because there weren't enough laptops, some of them had to record down manually on paper. Quite a hard work for them...

My first opponent was Wang Zhuo from China. Apparently she was one of the girls who was aiming to be a professional but couldn't. She was once training in Wuhan for sometime, and claimed to know Jerry. Indeed she was very strong, but not the type that I would lose straight away. In fact I think this was the highest quality game among all the 4 games. I was even leading at one point. But after mid-game, I made a wrong move, and couldn't catch up no matter what.

They provided us Bento for lunch. I just like this kind of Bentos. They are for you to eat outside your home, and yet so many things are packed inside. And they taste good! I must say Bentos in Japan are the best.

Second opponent was Nuttakrit from Thailand. This game wasn't very good but I had many chances of winning. In the end because of the byo-yomi I couldn't see properly and made a serious mistake and lost. 2 straight losses... I didn't expect my results to be so bad.

Night time was free time, and we could dine at whatever place we wanted with 1500 yen. Sadly, it was very difficult to find a restaurant cheaper than 1500 yen per person... But it's ok. In the end we went to this Shabu Shabu restaurant where they have free flow of meat and vegetables for 90 minutes, and each person only has to pay 2000 yen. Not bad.

My 3rd game was the most meaningless game. It was against Mile, whom I could play against anytime in Singapore... 4th game was against Emil from Mexico. Although I won both of these games, the content wasn't very good... Seems like I could only give my 100% in my first game...

4 games and that's the end. In the last round, Meng Xiao Long from China beat Seo Yu Tae from Korea and claimed champion. Lai Yu-Cheng from Taiwan got 3rd. Even though I think it would be better if there were more games, but still it was a good experience.

After the closing ceremony, we had the "drinking party". The phrase made me think that it would be held in places like a bar or pub, but it was actually in a normal restaurant where there were several tables to sit around. Then I remember, it was the 飲み会, which the Japanese always have after the completion of big events to celebrate. Indeed it was very fun, with many people drinking until they lost control of themselves. Yuri joined as well. Of course I remained sober. Some of us even went to Karaoke after the party. It was such a great time. This is what I like about Japan. =)

Next day was sightseeing. Places we went include Tokyo Tower, Asakusa temple, and Akihabara. Didn't buy a lot of stuff, since I would be staying in Japan for a few more days. Akihabara was really the home of Otaku. They brought us to a maid cafe. They maids there really greeted us as if we were their masters. Too bad there were only 2 of them, photos were prohibited, and they also didn't do any special stuff...

After Akihabara some of us went to Karaoke again. Since it was the last time, everybody didn't seem to want to go back to hotel so early. Some even went to a pub! While some people just stayed at the hotel to play Go until very late. Either way we all didn't want to say Sayonara just like that.

Because I woke up quite late on the last day, I didn't get to see a lot of players before they left, and hence couldn't get their contacts. What a pity. Luckily I still get the contacts of the remaining players and the organisers. I have to give a big thanks to the organisers. If not for them, this even wouldn't have been possible. Hope to see them again next year.

And next year, I will do better.

That's the end for the competition part.

Now for the free-loader part.

Once again I took the wrong train when going to Yuri's house. Her house was in Itabashi, and it was quite far from the station. But both the house and my room was quite big. Almost comparable to a hotel room. Took a bit of rest, and went out to Harajuku and Shibuya that night. The Harajuku station looked very familiar. I remember going there every week with my parents for some gathering. Shibuya on the other hand wasn't really in my memories. Spent some time in a club called Gas Panic, before going back home.

That night, outside Itabashi station, I happened to see a singer called Aeka giving a street live performance. She was just playing the electric piano and singing, but her voice of really beautiful. And the songs were really nice too. Didn't know such a singer existed! I immediately bought her album on the spot, and was lucky to get a signature from her as well. I will definitely support her in the future! Those who are interested can check out this website: http://aeka-web.com/pc/index.html

Next day Yuri brought me to Keiou University. They were having some sort of invitational competition between Keiou and Ensei University in Korea. The Korean players flew all the way from Korea. Last year the Japanese players went to Korea. It was quite a big scale event. It would be nice if Singapore universities could organise this kind of event also, but I don't think it's possible...

Because I couldn't play I was just walking around taking pictures. The level of the games were also quite high. Yuri played the same person as when she played 2 years ago. All the other players were very serious in their games also.

At night went drinking with 2 of Yuri's friends. One of them is the famous Takao Natsuko, the wife of Takao Shinji. She was really a very nice person with good character. She also taught me a lot about...life. I really admire the couple and the trust between them.

The next day we had Shabu Shabu party at Yuri's house. Before that in the afternoon I went Shibuya again to shop around, but couldn't find anything much. Having Shabu Shabu at home was totally different from having it outside. With 3 other friends of Yuri we had a nice time eating, drinking and playing Go.

The rest of the days I was more or less on my own. Most of the time was spent shopping around at Akihabara or Shibuya. I also visited Nihon Kiin once. Bought quite a lot of books there. Saw a lot of people playing too, though most of them were uncles. Both the inside and outside reminded me of what I saw in the manga Hikaru No Go. It was exactly the same, even the station entrance outside.

Yuri left on the 9th while I left on the 10th. Time was too short, hence there were many places I wanted to go but couldn't go. Yuri told me about a Go Salon called Shuusaku in Shinjuku, but when I went there I forgot totally about it, so didn't go... But one good thing is that it snowed on my last night in Tokyo. Quite romantic, but too bad there wasn't anyone to share with me (saw this sentence in someone's status...). But still, it was nice to see snow after so many years. Maybe it's the best gift I got from Japan.

10th March. Time to leave. I really wanted to stay longer, but it's hard to change the air ticket. And because I woke up quite late, by the time I woke up all the snow were gone... Well, at least I've seen it. Took Narita Express and got to airport quite fast. Did some shopping before boarding the plane. Ah, time to leave this place and get back to life...

For these period of time, I really must thank Yuri and his parents for providing me such a good accommodation. Especially Yuri, who brought me around even though she was busy taking care of her child.

Japan.

Goodbye.

I will definitely come again.