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.

JAPAN!!!!

Finally, the time has come... For me to fly to Japan!!!

Or should I say, go back to Japan?

Sometimes I kind of feel that's where I belong...

But at the same time, I'm kinda feeling nervous too, because I've never been there for so long already....

I wonder if things are still the same...

I wonder if I'll get used to Japanese people surrounding me...

But I guess no worries. As long as I enjoy the trip, it's ok!

Gotta fly now~

CNY Party at SWA

It was Rengo! Seems like they had this last year also. 4 teams, 5 people in each team. It's pretty hard to win this kind of game, and unless the average strength is very different, I must say it depends a lot on luck...

Our team VS KLS team



James team VS YLS team





Our team VS James team

In the end, sadly, my team lost all 3 games and got 4th... But never mind, win or lose is not important. It's just for everybody to enjoy.

4th



3rd



2nd



1st