Jiankai

Giving yourself a little push

2008-08-05T02:08:00.002+08:00

We've been talking about this crazy project for sooooo long, and we're finally going to make it reality soon. People have done it in other countries but nobody has ever tried it here.

Are Singaporeans just too risk averse? probably, who knows what trouble we're gonna get into by doing this. But even lawyers have told us what we're doing is perfectly legal, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

We've been hit by a team mate leaving our team, for greener pastures I hope. Why wouldn't he wanna be his own boss and choose to work for someone else? Maybe it's the way our 3rd university nurtured him. Go join the corporate world, it says, put the grooming and bullshit skills we taught you to good use. He's a capable guy, sad that he has to leave.

It's been a year...

2008-07-22T23:26:00.002+08:00

Kinda left this place to rot...

It's weird that I'm not posting anything after I started work...
now that I'm working for myself, maybe I should start posting again...

It's amazing how you can push yourself when u're facing the wall, that's exactly the situation we are at now. A good product, but no income yet, because people are always sceptical if you can survive in the long run.

A huge corporation comes along, slashes the price and expects you to bite. Yes, there are intangibles if they actually become our client, but they are setting a price level where we basically provide a free service. Tough decision, but I shouldn't really be complaining about this problem because other startups have to go around selling, we basically got this chance by just sitting around.

2007-06-30T02:08:00.001+08:00

See the Galatasaray emblem? An exclusive club only accessible by water.
Regulars = Models + Football players

A beautiful cafe along the streets of Istanbul

A drug addict getting his fix

A cruise ship with 60 capacity booked by the 13 of us = SHIOK, cruising between Asia and Europe

Saint Sophia: was used as a church and then a mosque, now a museum. One of the possible new 7 wonders. The babe decided to close her eyes at that very moment

The white terraces dyed by calcium XX (forgot the chemical name) in Pamukkale

Coupled with the clear cobalt blue waters

Blue Mosque

A very cute but blind cat in the palace

Welcome to Asia from Europe! Singapore is just across those mountains

Waiting for the balloons to be inflated

How many balloons can you spot?

The genuine fake Grand Canyon of Turkey (Reminds me of the Ayers Rock in Uluru too)

The Ruins of the Library of Epheseus

Grand Theatre (25,000 capacity, built more than 1500 yrs ago)

All in all, Turkey is highly recommended for any traveller. You've got history, culture, scenery, babes. It will cater to any traveller, and Istanbul is just a great city, you've gotta be there to know it.

Show Recommendations

2007-06-03T02:20:00.000+08:00

涙そうそう　Nada Sousou has a simple plot and is well acted out by Tsumabuki Satoshi (妻夫木聡) and Nagasawa Masami (長澤まさみ). Too bad it's taken off Singapore cinemas now, probably u can get it off the net or find the DVD.

I got smitten with Masami after this show, and I decided to give the drama that's currently on Japanese TV now a try. It turned out to be a spectacular show. At least it strikes a sense of agreement with my heart.

The show Proposal Dasakusen （プロポーズ大作戦）（求婚大作戰） is yet another simple story. I initially avoided this show cos of this NEWS (bloody boyband) guy was the lead. But heck, I'm lookin at the girl not the guy.

It describes how this guy meets a genie at his best friend's wedding, and the genie brings him back in time in his bid to stop her getting married because he realises how much he loves her. He wasted 14 years and did not tell her what he thought about her.

A bloody human tendency not to look at what's next to you, and regret not telling the people nearest to you how much they matter, only to regret after bad things happen. It's touching and you would stand up rooting for this guy, though I feel sorry for the "husband".

I foresee a typical happy ending, but it's one of the very few recent dramas that make me watch 4 episodes in a row till 4am in the morning.

I've took up the bridgestone offer officially and will start july 2nd. Still trying to squeeze a turkey or eastern europe trip before i start....

Bloody Humans

2007-05-28T19:20:00.000+08:00

More choices might not be the best, especially for people like me who doesn't know what's best for himself.

I'm the kind who lets good things slip by, no matter how much I tell my self that's best for me. Just by the fact that it's put right in front of me on the platter, my valuation of it drops drastically.

A girl who's easy to get, or I know I would get her easily, somehow lowers my valuation of her. This happens when there are many girls around worth considering. A job that I think I would like, somehow becomes a bit less appealing once the official offer comes out. Especially when I see many jobs that I have a good chance of getting, with prospects and pay at least as good.

If I take the risk and wait for the next offer, I might miss this offer and it would probably never come back. How many times has this sort of thing happened to our lives? Infinitely many, definitely.

A decision has to be out by Wednesday.... and I really think "Tyres it shall be...."

Meetings

2007-03-26T18:54:00.000+08:00

No, I don't mean meetings related to work or for projects.

Something interesting that happened today, I kept seeing people I know throughout the day without arranging to meet. Most of them are my good friends, or we were close friends at some period of our lives, and also my ex-girlfriend while I was in a car and she was in her dad's.

Granted Singapore is small, NUS is small, both she and I live in AMK, but the chances of that happening r still... remote to say the least.

Well this is pretty random, but I guess God likes to make fun of postive and forward looking people. I've almost got over her totally, and I have to see her face, 1 lane away, in a car. Guess she caught a glimpse of me too...

Final semester is fun, translation project may be xiong, but the thought of not finding a job that I won't hate is actually more scary... Let me go through this sem peacefully and enjoy a short getaway in Cambodia, and I am ready to step into a new phase of life.

Bachelor's Club

2007-03-02T02:09:00.000+08:00

Met up with a few of the OCS group again,
although the joker who got us there flew our aeroplane, well, we still had 4 people. We said it wasn't a platoon outing, we didn't even have enough to form a section.

Well at least these 3 blokes are people that I got along well with, we don't see each other often, but when we do, we always have tonnes to talk about.

Good things about old friends, you get to hear their stories and track their "progress", in love and studies and careers.

Only 1 out of us 4 are attached. I'm glad that I'm not the only one. The 2 other guys are perfectly great guys. A PE teacher, top badminton athlete in his days, funny, gets along well with people. The other is working in ABN-Amro, bright future, funny guy too, tall, dark, decently handsome, rich family background.

We ended up discussing if we were actually too choosy, or we just simply don't bother. Well we are all optimistic about our future, even if this sounds chauvinistic, in the end, guys are still the ones choosing the girls, simply because girls have to face the biological clock.

Cheers to all my bachelor friends!

Chinese New Year

2007-02-13T12:07:00.000+08:00

Haven't wrote for so long... I would be pleasantly surprised if anybody was stilll reading this....

CNY is coming again... the recent trend in Singapore, it seems that people put less emphasis on CNY nowadays, especially the younger generation. As I was reading Sumiko Tan's column on the papers, it's because people don't know what to say or what to do to sustain a long conversation with the relatives. Then I was talkin to Domi, he thinks as families get smaller and the increase in the number of nuclear families, friends actually play a more important part in young peoples' lives nowadays compared to the extended family. So we should make use of CNY to be visiting and catching up with friends as well. Especially if the grandparents have already passed away, the reason of the extended family to get together just gets weaker.

I am thoroughly enjoying this final semester in school. The last year for me seem like a dream, grades on a free fall, problems with people. Now I think I just wanna enjoy my last sem in school, grades take a back seat now, and I just want to end this phase of life peacefully, with no major ups or downs. Even as the pressure to secure a job rises, where the Econs honours people are scrambling to secure interviews with this bank and that bank, I think I would just take my time.

"Ignore the competition, take your time and find a job that you would not hate." Words from a wise friend....
Even though I want to work in the financial sector, I can't determine if I am there because of the money... the glamour? Or simply because everybody wants to be there... Or am I sincerely interested?

"Grades are not everything in this world, to succeed, PR and the willingness to learn are most critical." Words coming from my Ecnonomics professor. A wise man who says things like "This stupid term" and "Mathematics Suck", a rogue professor in every way.

Final Day

2006-12-05T19:11:00.000+08:00

Here I am sitting in the library to prepare for my final paper tomorrow. Freedom is just less than 20 hours away. But there just has to be one chinese couple who sits right in front of me and are having a lovers' tiff in the library, what an "in" place for a couple to quarrel.

Sometimes when something huge is about to end, u feel a sense of emptiness, just when I am getting used to camping in the library, the ordeal is about to end... Time to execute my entertainment plans...

Saw something that tickled me before I went into the exam hall. As I was walking past the MPSH carpark, I saw this BMW 645i coupe driven by a young girl, I presume a student. There was this empty lot, and it's the only lot left cos the carpark's usually really crowded during exam period. She stopped the car, looked at it for 2 seconds and then drove off, making many more rounds at the car park. Then this Lexus ES300 came along, driven by another female student, drove next to this lot, and started reversing. There was a car right at her backside, well, you might have guessed, she just happily reversed and slammed into the car behind her. The car sounded the horn for a good 2 seconds, but then maybe the horn drowned the sound from her reverse sensors... I didn't stay around to look, but I felt quite sayang for the car.... a freaking 200k car, well equipped with reverse sensors, this little girl who obviously can't drive well nor appreciate cars, happily slammed the backside.

What's the moral of the story, before you people start saying that I am sexist, (though I can never ever ever understand since young till I die, how people can actually reverse into other cars, considering we have reverse sensors, reverse cameras and what have you, I don't even bang into any cars with my old car, which had no reverse aids), the moral is to reach the exam hall early if you are driving to avoid the parking squeeze and the heavy traffic... Damn, wish those girls can treat the cars better...

Well, you might say they have big cars, which means they have more difficulty parking... but hey i navigated the 7 series before, parking is not that hard. As they say, it's never the car, it's the driver....

Just 20 days

2006-11-17T20:31:00.000+08:00

Only 20 days till the end of exams, it's scary... I am finding myself in a horrible situation of being in a B- or even worse grade situation in 3 of my modules, which explains why I am planning a 10am to 10pm schedule everyday from today onwards. I want to relax next semester, so I better make sure I don't jeopardise my 2nd Upper.

I realise that studying on your own in school is the most productive, nobody for you to talk to, except your books. To think of it, this kind of life for 20 days ain't that bad, compared to 20 days in Brunei. Moreover, I have somebody to look up to for motivation, I must say she has changed the way I looked at her. She's even more pia then I am, so I don't wanna lose to her. Sounds kiddish? I think this is postive motivation

Bush was in town yesterday, and somehow for some weird reasons, I was invited as a student representative to go listen to his speech. So as usual, security concerns made us get ready at 3pm, while he was due to arrive at 6pm and he gave a 30min speech. My american classmate in Thai class asked me if I would wear a T-shirt to protest against the Iraq war, and I said I still wanna survive in Singapore. Some Singapore biggies came for the speech, like Ah Goh, Tony Tan, Tommy Koh, Teo Chee Hean blah blah. It was pretty interesting to sit just 10m away from Bush, he posed for pictures with some student representatives later, think those jokers are going to frame those pictures.

He probably needed some love, that's why he came to Singapore, at least he knows he wouldn't be seeing people protesting against his visits, or against him and his administration. He probably wouldn't get such a warm reception from the general population in Hanoi, and definitely in the USA.

Basically what he said was crap, nothing new, and a pack of lies. We care about the environment... then sign the fucking Kyoto Protocol! We should not tolerate WMD, so who has the largest pile of nukes? We would give aid to whoever is interested in freedom and prosperity... yeah who owes the largest amount of money to the international society? The rest of the world is financing your bloody twin deficits!

I wasn't really against Bush, but now by the fact that he can say such stuff right in front of our faces, I am a little swayed.... As one American student protester wrote "BUSH is a WAR CRIMINAL!", he sprayed white paint against his black umbrella and stood opposite the UCC where the speech was given...

Time to wriggle among the books again!

some dumb test

2006-11-11T21:01:00.000+08:00

Your view on yourself:
You are intelligent, honest and sweet. You are friendly to everybody and don't like conflict. Because you're so cheerful and fun people are naturally attracted to you and like to talk to you.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You are not looking merely for a girl/boyfriend - you are looking for your life partner. Perhaps you should be more open-minded about who you spend time with. The person you are looking for might hide their charm under their exterior.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:
You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.
Your views on educationEducation is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:
You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.

Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve

Motivation

2006-11-05T20:44:00.000+08:00

It's that time of the semester again, where people bury their heads in books and mug again. This year has been exceptionally lonely and quiet for me, after so many of my econs kakis decided to graduate. Motivation has been exceptionally hard to come by, furthermore, I must say I don't really need to work really hard to secure my 2nd Upper Honours... I don't hang around with the bunch of Honours people, most of them are too hardworking, and it's hard and pointless to make friends now since they already have their own bunch of people.

I seriously need a change of environment and I am so glad that I am going to graduate in 6 months time, and I am looking forward to a less hectic semester. However, I must say that keeping yourself busy is important, otherwise you will just end up being extremely bored... and start hallucinating lotsa stuff...

Thought of the day: having a girlfriend is a vicious cycle, you'll always need one once you get into it. And when you don't, your mind starts to wander, and it's not healthy. So my advice is if you don't have one now, don't get one... haha

I may think I am a strong man up in the mind, but sometimes things just prove me wrong. But I agree with the cliche phrase that time heals everything, even for a man like me who's blessed with a lot of things, and who also lost many important things in his life.

Wishing all my friends the best of luck in the coming exams, and ergh.. I really hate econometrics....

it's my birthday

2006-10-28T22:45:00.000+08:00

Thanx friends for all the birthday wishes!

It's a home alone birthday for me this year since my parents have gone to macau and china for holiday. Nice to do my own laundry once in a while...

I am really happy to celebrate my birthday eve with a friend whom I already known 18 years back, but we only regained contact a couple of years back after losing each other for about 6 years or so. Well, at least she was the first to sing me a birthday song at 12 midnight...

I really hate liars... I don't know why people lie to people important to them. I admit that I told my fair share of lies in the past, but after hurting people important to me, I know being honest is usually the best policy. I lie to insurance agents stopping me along the road, because I don't give a hoot about them. But once you lie to a friend, it's hard to earn that trust back. So when people tell a lie to you, it's either you are not important to them, or they are telling a white lie. But a grown up man like me, doesn't need to be comforted by a white lie. That wrenching pain in my heart is back again, hasn't felt like that since April.

I will really like myself never to lie to anyone important to me ever ever again, because I know it really hurts when the person finds out.

Happy 24th KK!

P.S Wtf happened to your blog yogi?

Unpredictability....

2006-09-25T22:07:00.000+08:00

Finally the IMF bullshit meeting is over, the whole press can go raving on how the whole thing was a success, from my micro point of view, it was bullshit planning.

At least the newspaper did mention that the drivers were inadequately prepared as we were not given a proper orientation run on the routes after the Marina area was partially cordoned.

For me that was the least of my problems. In typically SAF style, we were made to do nothing for 12 hours, before making us rush, and then do nothing for 5 hours again. I spent Sat night 9pm till Sun 4 am doing nothing before driving to the airport. In the end, I waited till 1pm, did not manage to pick any guest from the airport because they simply did not arrive. All the SAF guy could tell me is," We are not able to control our delegates' arrival." I spent 16 hours of my life, doing nothing, as if SAF haven't screwed up my life.

Some more horror stories about the guests blasting through the arrival hall, not knowing they have someone to pick them up and a limousine for them. Maybe everything was meant to be a "pleasant surprise" for them. I bet they don't get any of this shit in D.C where they meet almost every year.

As someone wise told me, " it's better for us to complain than the guests complain, if we are complaining enough, that means there's no problem on the other side." That's true, but if SAF were a private corporation, it's gonna be the first to bleed to death. Why the hell you need 20 cars at the airport when not even a single soul is arriving, that's simply OVERKILL... A 12 hour waiting time before you get a guest in your car, that's just plain idiocy. I can't even give a proper smile after 12 hours of waiting.

Conclusion: Any moron could have planned this transportation arrangement, especially if I have 2000% spare capacity, so i can't even call this a success.

Life takes unpredictable twists, I am sure I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last.
Mr A broke up with his girlfriend of 7 years, most people didn't believe what was going on. Miss B, a very attractive girl, broke up with his boyfriend of 8 years, she's now back into the pool to fish and to be fished.

For me, after a failed relationship, I'm picking myself up after 5 months, I'm stuck in a position I absolutely abhor. I warned myself not to get involved in this kind of situation, serves me right for feeling miserable now... But I know myself, this won't last for long, girls are the last thing that's gonna make me commit suicide. There's far more things in life I wanan achieve than to be thinking of girls, so if things don't work out, I'll take it as her loss, not mine.

Combination of work, girls, post IMF bitching, it's making my life go upside down....
I gonna go to the sea tomorrow and scream right at it....

Sleepless Night

2006-08-30T18:39:00.000+08:00

School holidays in Tokyo are coming to the final month, that's where I am getting quite a lot of visitors to Singapore.

Lee Kian, arguably the best friend I made in Tokyo, decided to take a flight to Singapore and take a bus back to KL. I still can't believe that a flight from Narita to Singapore costs just over 20k yen, which translates to just under 300 bucks... she saves S$300 by just taking a flight to Singapore and an express bus to KL cos a flight from Narita to Sepang is like S$600...

From economics point of view, that can only mean price distortion. Consumer welfare is not optimised. (sorry for this technical distraction)

with my precious duty free alcohol, she stayed over at my place, and we spent the whole night talking, discussing life, her life in Tokyo, my life in Singapore, and before we knew it, it's 630am in the morning, and she was on her way to Beach road to catch a bus.

It's been a year since we saw each other, but it seems just like yesterday.... the 6 hours used to catch up for this year just didn't seem enough...

The Towkay seat

2006-08-24T23:30:00.000+08:00

BMW 730Li

2006-08-24T22:55:00.000+08:00

It's a huge car.... what else can i say...

730Li, 250+bhp, 300+ Nm of torque max... 0-100km/h in just under 9 seconds...
And it weighs a hefty 1.9 tonnes, and it's 5.1m long...

Steering is extremely nifty for a huge car.... feels like a car much smaller in size....
The towkay seat at the back is SUPER SHIOK... i raise my legs and i can't touch the seat in front... freaking hell... I know i am not that tall, but still.....
you've got rear blinds if u think u dont' want to look at the girls ogling at you...
And the leather just feels like real leather...
When you tap the accelerator... Power Flows with no obstruction... and the 1.9 ton mass just flies forward gracefully.... with no noise... 0 decibels of it...

Minuses...: Horrible body roll for a BMW chassis... Brake is too sensitive... 4-pot calipers on huge brake discs, jerks everytime u just tap on the brakes...
500km on a 88l full tank... means u are lucky to get 6km/l
The idrive system drives me crazy before i drive the car...
The electronics makes my house desktop look like a toy...
The reverse sensor lags... so some people keep hitting the cones
And yes parking is a huge bitch

Conclusion...: I still wanna test if it's really gonna hit 100km/h in 8.5 sec as claimed...
If some Tai tai gives me this car... i'll considering selling my backside

Bright mood

2006-08-03T21:53:00.000+08:00

Things always happen in such a way that you would never expect, nor the way you want it to be.

First, I got dropped by the Japanese Embassy in Singapore as a candidate for the scholarship next year. it either means there are better people than me in there, or with 2 singaporeans in the panel of 3 interviewers, and with 15 people fighting for 3 spots... there could be more than meets the eye.
I got a bit pissed when I received the usual letter of saying thank you for trying, good luck for you future endeavours, which actualyl means "you sucked and we ain't gonna give you anything no matter how you beg". I sent a few emails out. My economics professor in Keio is considering letting me get there on a scholarship, and things will iron out when he comes to Singapore in September for the World Bank, IMF meeting

Talking about the meeting, I have been recruited as one of the 600 people to drive those high flyers around... and my dream of laying hands on a brand new BMW comes 1 step closer, though I might still end up with a SI Fei Lou (Cefiro) (Think in cantonese!)

with a couple pieces of good news, i managed to go to Penang with Alvin and Chishio in a peaceful state of mind, and feeling extremely happy to be able to see Wynn Way again....

Penang's boring but the company made it extreme fun....

In the gutters

2006-07-13T21:50:00.000+08:00

It's just one of those days that you feel extremely low...

Got pissed with my dad, feeling lost with life, wondering about the future, trying to piece where I would be, what I would be doing, how I would look, and who's going to be the lady next to me.

My dad should just grow up and stop behaving like a kid, and always try to argue his way through what he wants...

I guess I probably inherited this crap from him....

The End of World Cup

2006-07-10T21:25:00.000+08:00

Yes it's finally the end of the World cup 2006... I've officially watched my 6th world cup, ( didn't really remember what happened in '86 though).

Golden Ball Award: Zidane

Is this a practical prank or what? he headbutts in the final and he gets the prize. Not that Beckham was that sparkling in '98 when he decided to stamp on Simeone, and he became the world's most villified player. And Zidane gets the best player of the tournament... so much for sportsmanship and fair play. Cannavaro certainly gets my vote for being the most consistent man for all 7 matches he played. Of course, Cannavaro did not even get a yellow card. Zidane seriously only played 3 good matches and got himself sent off in the final.

Most entertaining Team: Portugal

What? Are you serious? They scored 7 goals, conceded 5... Ronaldo was crap, Deco wasn't really at full form, Pauleta was a joke, the only thing entertaining was it's shootout with England, and Figo showing Ronaldo how to play like a true winger. In short, they were forgettable, not the team I would wake up at 3am to watch them play.

Top Referee: Shamsul

Believe it or not, this Singaporean has got the highest rating for refereeing the matches in world cup, and the people actually couldn't find his picture to be put on soccernet...

Economists had said that if Italy were to win the world cup, it would do the world economy the best compared with other teams. So let's hope all my friends looking for jobs are able to ride on this wave. Or they can shoot those economists if it does not come true.

My name is....

2006-07-03T18:43:00.000+08:00

I went for the japanese scholarship test today, to my surprise, there's actually arouud 15-20 people going for the scholarships this time around. I wonder how many people are they recruiting for the scholarship. The rumours were that they have a quota every year, for each individual country, but the exact number is not known.

However, there was this girl that sorta pissed me off. I didn't talk to her at all, but I don't like her attitude, that's all. First, I saw her at the entrance of the gate of the embassy. I showed the guard my IC, to save his time and my time. I received a tick on his list, and I was able to go through the door.

The girl, so what did she do?

"Yes, the name in the middle.... NOOOO, down... down, nonono 2 more names down... yes that's it", and the way she was saying it, she seems to be blaming the guard to be stupid that he just can't get his pen to hit on her name on the list.

"What the FUCK... you don't have a name?"

Into the main office, the same thing happened again.

"What's your name?"

"No.8"

Surprisingly she's not the only one who did that. I heard a few, "This one, that one... nonono, upupup... nononono, down down down...."

What's wrong with these people? They don't like their names? They don't want to let people know their names? Or they are worried that people are not able to pronounce their names?
I think it's only polite to reply with your name, before starting to help pointing, or giving numbers to help the person find your name. These people actually bother to remember the position they are in on the list... Oh my...

Looks like the "register number" syndrome from primary school never died off from these people.

The test was cool, I managed to finish the whole Japanese section in 2 hours, and I left despite the test lasting 3 hours. I wasn't the first to go... in fact, I was somewhere in the middle. With the first guy leaving only about 15 minutes after the test started. My conclusion, this guy doesn't know japanese at all...

My Precious...

2006-06-29T12:37:00.000+08:00

I lost my Jap-Eng electronic dictionary almost a month ago and all the efforts of trying to find it have failed.... I'm sure I left it somewhere in NUS while I was trying to do a writeup in Japanese for the scholarship application... It's an extremely old model... big and clunky, nothing like the slim babes that is on sale now... It's cover is full of scratches and even has green mould on it. I don't know which idiot would wanna take it. No luck in the library and no luck in the computer lab which I thought I misplaced the dictionary.

It cost me almost 300 bucks when I bought it like 6 years ago, it's still functioning wonderfully, just feel a bit sad that I lost it. I do hope it decides to malfunction on the person who picked it up and refused to return it to the lost and found counter. Machines aren't as loyal as dogs, but I hope that it's reached it's lifespan and decides to disintegrate and explode on the new user. But what's worse is that I had to finish the write up without a dictionary, and when my Japanese friend checked the essay for me, she had a good laugh over it. But it's cool, I laugh at her english essays all the time.

Good thing she's going back for 10 days, can lompang her to buy a new, sleek, slimmer, chioer model for me. 16,000 yen, damn it, that's almost 220 bucks. Luckily I still have like 12,000 yen cash left over in my drawer, which I happily passed to her, and my Japanese ATM card, which has only 10,000 yen left in the account. Enough for her to get a new dictionary for me. No Singapore dollars burnt... that's the most important thing.

Finally, a temp job from july 4th till school starts, get some $$ back... I hope my trip to Penang with Alvin to visit a friend and our 25 outing to Batam is still on though....

YX's blog started me thinking about friendships... We hang out in a decently big group, bound by the love of the beautiful game, but I can't say that I know all of us very well, in fact, I don't really think I know any of us very well... really close friends are actually people I know more on an individual basis, which means we usually have no choice, but to go out in 2s. But I'm pretty sure when anyone in our group runs into any trouble, or has any event worth a celebration, most of us would be there for him.

While outside with my friend, I saw a stray cat, and we started talking about pets. My cousin is the "king of dogs". He has a Siberian Husky, an Alaskan Husky, (YES! 2 huge huskies in his house) and 2 Jack Russell Terriers.... heres a picture of GG and BB... Superdog and Spiderdog!

Sat out

2006-06-24T20:27:00.000+08:00

I found a "comedy movie buddy" and a "horror movie buddy"... now maybe i need an 'arty farty movie buddy".

Dominic with some crappy "send domi home fund"....
Anyone who hates me? "Send me $500, and i will disappear to Tokyo, or Beijing, or Taipei for 1 mth"

It was a Saturday of walking for me, from City Hall, to a authentic japanese restaurant nearby for ramen, to cathay cinema for a show, PS and finally to orchard.

I've known my comedy movie buddy for 20 years, she's in my p.school class for all 6 years, see her once in a while in Language center cos she learns japanese too, and also in JC. But we seldom talk. She went japan for undergrad studies and i never saw her since. It's only a coincidence that i met a friend in tokyo, who is also a good friend of hers, then we managed to get contacts of each other.

Out of boredom, I am playing "Pangya" after some negative influence from a friend. It's an extremely kiddy online game of golf. I decided to be a girl character in the game cos' it's so "mecha kawaii"(damn cute). I'm 18 yrs old, and I was from HCJC, waiting to go into Uni... that's what i say when guys make conversation with me....And then i find out most of them are in sec school... Sighz... Think they would freak out if i told them i'm 24.

My target of goin to japan for further studies just got 1 step closer. I will be taking a test couple weeks later and an interview on the following day. $2500/mth for studying... think it's a decent deal... if I get accepted, the next step is to find a university over there which is willing to accept me.

World Cup 2006

2006-06-01T17:10:00.000+08:00

Only a week plus before world cup starts, and for people like me who doesn't subscribe to SCV, I thought i would have to go to friend's place or to a pub, or listen to Cantonese/ Chinese commentary on the net.... Guess what... RTM is showing all matches live...

For any you guys whose place has not been ravaged by the Starhub people (ie you still have the old antenna connection) and you can tune to the Malaysian channels. Congrats, you officially have full World Cup coverage...

The TV3 schedule still cannot be found... so probably with TV3, we can watch all the matches live... another reason why I like Malaysia... RTM obviously exists to make viewers happy... Mediacorp exists to let Cable TV get the good stuff....

I don't need HD TV or anything... just good old 'live' football action

More pics!

2006-05-31T00:21:00.000+08:00

Finally uploaded selected pics to imagestation
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105845255

Do check it out...

Might get a part time job at last... going for interview later tomorrow... 2 months of slacking is really a bit too much...

I need to get back some of the money i spent in australia.

Plans:
1. Get a tour guide license... anybody wanna join me?
2. Go for Spanish lessons ($540 though....)
3. Teach Japanese to some sucker.... I hope that person hires me as his/her pvt teacher..
4. To apply to drive a BMW 735Li for the World Bank Forum Delegates in Sept... held just before the mid term break. Anybody wanna join me? 3 years driving experience makes you eligible.
5. Go to Malaysia to chill out before school starts

Post Aussie Trip

2006-05-27T20:04:00.001+08:00

Aussie was great fun... I actually had a bias against australia, I always thought it's a boring country with the attractions distributed over long distances. Well, the latter is still true. I think we drove 4000km, flew more than 5000km within australia, and did more than 700km on a day tour.

Quite torturous distances I would say, so I salute the day tour driver who did 700km in one day within 12 hours.

Things happened that was expected:
1. I overspent.
2. I overspent
3. I overspent

Things happened that was not expected:
1. Meeting a primary school classmate at the 12 apostles 300km off melbourne
2. Seeing reallly beautiful Mother Nature.
3. Almost crashed the car, and almost got hurt when Mitsu almost crashed the car.
4. Won A$150 at Melbourne's Casino playing Blackjack... Thanx to those Latino speaking aunties who taught me how to play Blackjack properly at a casino
5. Seeing tonnes of cute asian girls in Perth and Melbourne.
6. Got slapped with a parking fine by Melbourne's government... which we did not bother to pay
7. Stupid white woman who gave me a middle finger. (but seriously, most australians are still non-racists)

OZ!

2006-05-13T20:34:00.000+08:00

Certain disclaimers from the last post:

My stepmom's not the kind of step moms in Kids' stories, she's a kind person, i believe she's gonna take care of my dad. I don't hate her or my dad or anything, probably some things are just harder to accept.

Yeah Xiaobing, prob we can scream at each other to vent our frustrations after i get back from OZ.

Flown to Brisbane, met up with Domi at the airport, then we started our 1000km journey south to Sydney. Till now, We drove more than 3000km from the day we left Brisbane. Visited Canberra, and other small towns along the way...

So tired from the journey... gonna take a break in Domee's house b4 the flight to Mel later tom

Starting afresh

2006-05-07T18:06:00.000+08:00

In many ways, this has been the most eventful period of time in my entire 23+ years of life.

Breaking up: Enough said bout that, A mentally drained man needs no further stress from his ex gf who decides to reveal tonnes of hidden truths. Things that could have been said 1.5 years ago.

Shifting: Don't congratulate me on shifting into a condo. I would rather be in my cosy little apartment in Tokyo.

Re-marriage: Yippee?! My dad's getting re-married... (explains the above point)... went to the ceremony, but just couldn't bear to actually sit in at the actual ceremony.

Family Past: When shifting, it's only normal that u dig every corner of your old place. I look at my lego and books, my childhood. I decided to bring along some of the most precious stuff... Significant gifts from good friends, Old photos... among others.
It's fun digging out your dad's and mom's birth certs, (Theirs! not mine) Marriage cert, death cert. I realise my mom kept a good record of everything of mine since I attended PAP preschool in Toa Payoh 20 years ago. Everything from PAP, Pei Chun, TCHS, Hwa Chong were all nicely kept.

These were among the Class A stuff that I make sure I bring along to my new place, together with my mom's photo.
A shocking revealation while i was flipping some doctor's memo. People know that I'm the only child. I found out that I actually have a younger sister. Born 1.1.1986 2am, died 13.4.1986.

My aunts have hinted to me about this before, i also suspected something wrong through some old photos. But as always, official documents make it crystal clear. So i guess I might spend some time imagining how this 20 yr old sis of mine would be like.

I guess this mentally drained man really needs a holiday in OZ...and start with a clean slate when I get back

If only life was simpler

2006-04-23T23:47:00.000+08:00

The difference between humans and animals, some say, is the ability to feel emotions. Although I think dogs can feel emotions to a certain extent. If only life was simpler, without emotions... what would it be like?

It's over, we broke up after 1 year and 5 mths. It's the most intense stream of emotions i felt since my mom died 5 years ago. The emotions of leaving a person who was close to you. I can understand why humans seek closure, when people die, we bury or cremate them. So I went to the place where we all first started, walked alone, people pretty much freaked out at me walking at that kind of place alone.

I could practically see the shadows of us sitting down there, at the place where it all started. It's just like my brain projecting out an image to my eyes.

We ended as abruptly as we started. I don't know if I had made the correct choice, but my instincts tell me we would come back to the same problem again after 3 months even after we promise each other that we would try harder.

I wish her all the best in her teaching career and better luck in finding a guy who is willing to give her more attention than I would.

Soccer Economics

2006-02-10T14:27:00.000+08:00

If I am a professor, I am going to teach this module and then see what soccer can teach us about economics.

Apparently, some guy has already beat me to it. Well these 2 things take up say...
30% of my time currently. So it's like a big part of my life.

You could think about the clubs = Firms
Players = Labour
Coach, pitches, training equipment: Capital.
(In the true sprit of the game) Output : GOALS
Consumers: Us... and I pay market price to see goals... Just think why the highlight shows only show goals...

Well, what i read that i like in the article was some analogies that he used...
Because Kaka and Shevchenko, Ronaldinho and Eto'o, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, are playing in the same team, they get increasing returns to scale and they are able to produce more output than they would have been alone.

That's why Man U won the treble in '99... they got huge increasing returns to scale because of the combination of players

As the big clubs accumulate capital and grow bigger, they hire more labour in hope of getting more output (increasing returns though..) That's a reason why we see the big clubs getting bigger, while the small ones are finding it hard to catch up.

Talking about the labour market, I think a soccer player has the easiest access to any country in the world than any other profession. Europeans, South Americans, Africans, Japanese, Koreans, play their trade in European leagues. Even if you were a professional, like a doctor...it's not that easy.

Now we acknowledge that European leagues have the highest standard of soccer in the world, all these multi-national players play there, and then what happens?

A very interesting statistic was that the margin of matches in the World Cup has decreased drastically. In 2002, it was only 0.88 i.e: teams won by 0.88 goals compared to margins we see in the 90s.

Turkey and South Korea surprised everyone by reaching the top 4, beating several traditional powerhouses along the way.

What has all these soccer talk got to do with the real world? Suppose labour movement is less restricted, but people are only allowed to work in the "advanced countries" for a restricted period of time say from 2 to 5 years, before having to go back to their homeland. Well sounds like an African player playing in Europe before representing their own country in the world cup isn't it?

That guy who wrote this idea in the newspaper was not a genius, just some commonsense and some inference that bring complicated economics to ground.

Almanac

2006-01-26T10:05:00.000+08:00

Nothing beats a simple traditional breakfast at your neighbourhood kopitiam... 2 pieces of toast, 1 egg, and a cup of coffee.... Doing that while I am supposed to be at a lecture in school.

Bingrong was sick, Yibo didn't wake up on time, and I refused to go for lecture. Everyone was thinking of borrowing notes from one another, what could go more wrong.

Coming to the reason why I am having breakfast downstairs at 10am.... cos I slept at 4 and woke up at 9.30. Last night while I was asleep, my dad called me at around 2. His lorry had a punctured tyre and asked me to go down to help him change the tyre. I'm pretty experienced at that... the previous Civic we had did it twice to me... I went down, ready to go...

Next, maybe it's like a series of unfortunate events... my car refused to start... GREAT, a flat battery, without warning, it was absolutely functional 5 hours ago....
took a cab down, helped my dad with the tyre and yippee, it was almost 3...

came back, dismantled the freaking battery from the car and i went to sleep at 4. I left my lights on and slept on the floor, hoping that I would wake up at 7 to catch a bus to school... I did wake up but i gave up cos i know i would just end up sleeping in class. There's still the more Mission Impossible Math Econs 2 at 12... I'd rather catch more sleep and stay awake for that one.

Maybe we should have checked the almanac.... both of us shouldn't be touching cars early morning today. Talk about superstition... but life is always like that, things always go wrong at the least expected time... and when shit happens, it usually flows freely like you're having a diarrhoea...

Infernal Affairs vs Rondo

2006-01-25T10:58:00.000+08:00

Apparently the Hong Kong was so successful that the Japanese wanted to get a slice of it. Their answer? A drama series with a similar theme. You might think it would get boring, but I am a sucker for myterious and exciting stuff like the yakuza, detective work and of course spy games.

The major difference is instead of 2 male leads, there's only 1. The undercover cop in the largest crime syndicate in Japan. Played by Takeuchi Yutaka (竹野内豐), it's exciting so far to episode 2. But of course the spy in the police is played by some extra.

The other point which attracts me is that Korean actors and actresses in the show. It's great to see Choi Ji Woo acting someone who's not hopelessly in love and keeps crying the whole day. She's not terminally ill and doesn't have to wait for 10 years to find out if this guy was the guy he was looking for. Great to see a korean actress in a much more exciting Japanese script. The baddie is also a Korean guy, who likes Choi and harresses her every episode, acted by the guy in the "Because I'm a girl" MTV.

Choi has achieved quite a lot of success in Japan despite almost not speaking Japanese... great to see them cooperating...If anyone is interested this show's name is "Rondo" 輪舞曲

Crowded

2006-01-22T21:09:00.000+08:00

I look down from my flat and i see an orgy of cars weaving in and out, sounds of car horn can be heard occasionally. And I wonder, what's so special about the NTUC here? Living here has made me so complacent about convenience, that when the ATM shifted about 100m away, i was cursing DBS. Why do they give up a branch at such a good location.

Anyway nobody would disagree that the girl who acted the young Sayuri in the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" is SOOOO cute. The eyes and the smile...ahhhh....She is like the most suitably casted chracter in the show after Gong Li. I feel like a paedophile... but after looking around her sites in Japan, she is quite a veteran, despite being only 12. 5 movies, 8 dramas. 3 commercials. And i realised that i actually watched the drama that she acted in recently. I didn't realise that till i was reading through her biography...

The winter season of japanese dramas have started again... going through the tough part of watching as many episode 1 as i can before choosing....

Memoirs of A Geisha

2006-01-14T13:28:00.000+08:00

Finally finished reading this novel after having the book for almost a month. My initial plan was to finish this book before I go watch the movie. I planned that I would have lots of travelling time in Japan and I could read more than half the book by the time I would be back in Singapore.

In the end, I actually caught the movie in Virgin Toho, Roppongi Hills cinema in Tokyo. Well, Japan and USA had the world premiere, we dudes in Singapore had to wait till January. After watching the show, I'm pretty sure it's going to be a good box office hit in USA and Japan, maybe Singapore too. In any sense, Gong Li's performance was much more convincing than Zhang Ziyi's. And that Zhang Manyu would have been a really much better choice Michelle Yeoh as the role of Mameha. In any case, 3 good actresses from Japan would have pulled off this Hollywood production also.

To make things worse, I ended up reading only 5 chapters while I was in Japan, so when I came back, I wondered if I would even want to finish reading this book. Well, luckily I did.

Usual of movie adapted from a novel, the front and the back are truncated but the movie does follow very closely to the novel. For entertainment value i suppose, so that we don't get bored by the long introduction and the not so happy ending. Some parts were also different from the novel, probably the Hollywood producers couldn't stand more Asian men to be casted...

Finally when I was reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book, I realised that the author did not really interview a geisha as he had written at the start of the novel. It was purely fiction. Sayuri and the interview never existed. Arthur Golden did do extensive research with a few japanese friends who were geishas.

As yogi has mentioned, think this novel is going to be included in the JS module, maybe even in this semester, strike whie the iron is hot yea?

The Barber

2006-01-09T12:43:00.000+08:00

I always frequent this barber near my place, and I have done it for the past 10 years. It was a place where old people go, not young people like me, but since the barbers know me, it's not really weird. So as it had been many times before, this old man was sitting next to me, attended by another barber.

He went on chatting with the barber about him studying in an english school, how he learnt his mandarin, how he worked in HDB for the past 30 years blah blah blah...Which kampung he lived in, which part of China his parents were from, and that he's a true blue homegrown 2nd generation Singaporean.

It's just one of those topics that I need to stretch my brain to think, although I could understand every single word of Hokkien in it, some of those road and kampung names just don't make sense to me.

Then I thought, I know all the bloody history about Singapore, Old man Lee, WWII, but then my grandfathers were all but a mystery....

Paternal grandad: born in late 1910s, I know his name, he was born somewhere in the southern part of China in Hokkien province. He was a fishmonger here, and I never knew how he got to marry my grandmother. He had 8 kids, one of them my dad of course. Most memorable phrase, according to my dad, " Ai tak du tak, mai tak du ga wa buey he" which literally translates to "You want to study then study, don't want then you come sell fish with me." He died of lung cancer, ironically after he quit smoking, but he was already way past 90, so he actually lived a longer life than an average singaporean.

Maternal grandad: sad to say, I don't know a thing. I only know he came from Hainan island, and that he died when I was a toddler.

So after getting brainswashed of the magnificent history of the Lee family, I suggest that you get to know more of your own family history, and it would be interesting, i think. Go up to your grandad and literally ask for a "grandfather story"

Season of travelling

2005-12-28T04:10:00.000+08:00

Taiwan and then Japan. Holidays always seem short.

I've done the wildest and craziest things on these trips. Some shouldn't have been done, some things i regretted doing. Some things always do screw up on me, like the weather. It's either the winter weather in the Northern hemisphere, or the weather simply doesn't like me. Rain in Taipei, heavy snowfall in Japan which made me cancel plans.

X'mas eve: Drinking and partying. Did things I usually don't do, did somethings that i regretted doing, all in the name of fun. 1 hour of sleep ---> 3 hours of travelling to the airport. ---> Puking in the train's toilet ---> puking in the plane, 10000 feet above ground ---> catching 2 hours of sleep in Hong Kong airport.

I feel extremely unhealthy... my body's totally disintegrating...

Student exchange syndrome

2005-10-25T00:18:00.000+08:00

Let's call it the student exchange syndrome...
it's proven that even Tokyo cannot be compared to Singapore....
cos' Tokyo students like Singapore, just like I loved Tokyo... it's the student exchange syndrome at work...

Some people just love to be thrown out of a familiar environment and live with minimal responsibilities for a short period of time....well i think it's probably human nature...

Exams stress are coming again... haven't felt like this since this time last year... Tons of work to be done and I am finding myself thinking of the carefree times in Tokyo...

Reading Freaknomics kindly lent to me by Mark... written by a young revolutionary economist known as Steven Levitt...
1. Teachers and sumo wrestlers are cheats....so that they retain their job
2. Ku Klux Klan and Real Estate agents have something in common...They play to your fears for their gains
3. Legalised Abortion in US has curbed crime.... simply because the criminals are not born in the first place

Controversial but out of the frame thinking...
For playing to your fears... almost all occupations i can think of do that... they claim they are giving a service, but they are playing to your fears for their gains... Your insurance advisor, your lawyer, your house contractor, your car agent, your mechanic.... You don't have the info that they do, and they work it to their advantage...

That's what I wanna be next time.... sell something that people don't know, and make tons of money out of it

Myopic Humans

2005-10-14T11:10:00.000+08:00

Going to ramble about some economics now... Human Beings are MYOPIC... not talking about eyes, but about their view of the future... some economist ever said, "In the Long Run, we are all dead" But a lot of us are guilty of not even looking into decisions that would affect us in the near short future...

In Macroecons mid term test, the simplest theory of "Tax cuts now usually mean tax increases in the future or cut in retirement benefits because the Govt will have to balance their budget sooner or later" So you shouldn't be jumping for joy when a politician says "tax cuts", the meaning behind it is "Vote for me, I will pass the next politician a shithole national bank account, and you will suffer in the future"

Am I guilty of that? So far I think I have not... but I think most probably haven't realised how myopic many of my decisions are.... I refused to sign up any scholarships with bonds (Myopic? Wise? my grades weren't wonderful anyway...) I don't know what i want in the future... I just don't want to lose my future freedom/job mobiilty

Study in NUS and put the most hours in the whole world to reach a degree... (Myopic? maybe... it was more of ignorance... didn't know NUS had the longest hours in the world to reach a degree till I was in Japan... Most British Unis give you a Honours in 3years and Masters in 4 years)

Thinking of going back to Japan for Masters.. (Myopic? if they give me 3k a mth without any bonds, I'm better off than working... myopic? yes, I am thinking of my life for 2 years, but not how this trip would benefit me in the long term)

Paper chase... MASTERS... HONOURS... (Myopic? I really don't know.... I don't care about all these, but my future employers do... which incidentally would never be those Ministry of XXXXX, cos' those scholars would be flying Shenzhou VI while i would be taking a lift up the rankings)

If something looks too good to be true, it usually isn't true... that's a golden rule to avoid getting conned... If something looks good in the short term, think long term before giving the nod...

Poison

2005-10-05T21:01:00.000+08:00

That's it... McDonalds has officially poisoned our kids... although that has always been the strategy of them... make sure the kids like their stuff... and business would come.

Now they have this ez-link card thingy that allows the kids to do a lot of farni stuff with it...I wonder why the authuorities allowed that anyway, cos all the kids have like a student concession ez-link card and their names can be seen when the card is placed on the sensor of the machine. What does this make? This means every kid in Singapore... or at least all kids studying in Singapore, a member of McDonald's...can earn those loyalty points and stuff... These things spread like plague in a primary school settings. I remember those days where EVERYONE reads dragonball, collects 偶像卡

You know what, I don't think the students get to use their ez-link card to do stuff in the library, public swimming pools, arcade game centers, LAN shops... Maybe Comics Connection can learn something from McDonald's... The other poor fast food chains can only play catch up with Mr Ronald...

I am so going to make sure that my kids don't like McDonald's food next time, though it's going to be difficult if all his friends around him treat McDonald's like god. I never like to impose ideas on people, I think even to my kids next time... He/She can choose whichever school he/she wants to go to, if he's a guy, he says he wanna go RI, then go ahead...(So optimistic that my kid would be smart)but this is one thing I would make sure he knows, McDonald's poisons your mind. They brainwash you into thinking that their stuff is good for you. I'd rather have birthday parties held in parks or some clubhouse.

But then it makes you wonder, do u need authorities approval to use those ez-link stuff... if yes... why McDonald's? Talk about healthy living.... but we are feeding our kids poison

Mid term festival

2005-10-05T00:39:00.000+08:00

Ya, if only mid term was mid autumn... haha corny hor...

Looks like the "break" in Japan is really worth it. I did pretty well in 2 of the econs midterm so far... maybe batteries recharged already, but to think of it, i wasn't really working really hard, i thought i was actually lazy in fact. Maybe I have reached the max. point of my LDMR curve, LDMR is just the favourite phrase for lazy people. For the sake of non-econs student, it just means it doesn't mean the more u study, the higher your grade gets. You need a blend of soccer, japanese anime and drama, part time work of subbing anime, play some winning eleven 9, and also spend time to give in to the whims and fancy of your girlfriend, that my friends - is the secret to good grades....

In short, it means you can score even if you are lazy...

And that's why I love the macro econs module I am taking now... Dr Ho's questions are really thinking questions. That means I don't need to study, just bring my brain there and hope that everyone lost their brains haha... puts me more on a level field with the people who seem to be running 800gb hard disk at 15000rpm brains....becos it's goin to be about who has the 4.0Ghz processor....

Yay I can see my posts

2005-10-02T23:37:00.000+08:00

Yay after one day of not knowing what to do, I finally can see my own posts liaoz...

Subbing anime is much more harder than I thought, probably typing is so much slower than just talking.

Anyway this is a small world. My primary school "good" friend, Siang Siew, well we are not really good friends, just that we were forever in the same class for 6 years, happened to be a good friend of another friend who went to Japan for a homestay program 8 years back. They live 2 blocks away from each other in Potong Pasir, and ended up in the same University 3000km away in Japan. Through this girl, whom I met up with in Tokyo, I regained contact with Siang Siew....

That's not all. This girl is actually my girlfriend's good friend in primary school... It's such a small world...

Mitsuhiro, my good friend from Japan, who's on exchange in NUS now, lost his handphone and he's pissed, i know what it feels like to lose all the numbers... it just sux...

Trying to find out the name of the catchy tune... if you have been to the cinemas recently, the "chicken little" would dance to the tune "Yaiyahu, Yaiyahi, " and blah blah...

And yes thanx to Mitsuhiro, found out this dance track is called "Dragonstea Din Tei" by a Danish group called O-Zone...

Something is wrong

2005-09-30T22:34:00.001+08:00

Hmm can't seem to view my latest posts myself... but apparently my readers are able to see... anyone knows how to fix the problem? is it the configuration or something? It was ok on my laptop when I was in Japan, come back use desktop only cannot make it liaoz.

Anyway this couple of weeks is a testing season of tests... hope i get everything in order... never got the mood to be hardworking after coming back, watch CL soccer before test and stuff like that.. can only be bad for studies... anyway GOAL is coming up soon, think this kind of show is best watched with my soccer kakis...

I remember laughing at my korean classmate when he was trying to talk to me and Alvin in Tokyo. He was speaking to Alvin in bursts of English with Japanese, both foreign languages to him. He kept apologising but he just can't help it, I understood everyword he said so it's ok... but for poor Alvin haha...

I finally got a taste of that in my Bahasa Melayu class... i was thinking of what's the malay word for "beside", then what kept coming to my mind was "隣"(tonari) in Japanese, no matter how hard I shook my brain, the malay word refused to come out... di kiri, di kanan, de hadapan, di belakang, di atas, di bawah...ARGH what the hell is beside???!!!!

What goes round comes round, should have laughed at Mr Choi in August, Karma has struck... probably I am not such a genius afterall for languages... but i still want to keep my resolution of mastering 4 languages at least....

Mark kindly sub-contracted 4 episodes of anime for me to sub, so that we could both get used to the subbing techniques... 1 episode = $70.... would be $280 dollars reaching in a couple of weeks... this is what i call enjoying work... well I contacted the company liaoz so I would become a contractor and not sub contractor...haha i hope they have a endless stream of anime to sub and earn $$ and maintain my japanese standards...

2005-09-30T10:07:00.000+08:00

Classic shot of furano

2005-09-30T10:06:00.000+08:00

see our little white car?

2005-09-30T10:05:00.000+08:00

me satoshi and alvin

Finally the first post in SIngapore

2005-09-29T23:57:00.000+08:00

Nothing to write about in Singapore... or to say nothing as interesting to write about...

Anyway thinking back of what i did in hokkaido, some were really out of point....
Driving 3 hours from 富良野(Furano) to 帯広(Obihiro) just to have a 1 1/2 hour dinner with　怜史　(Satoshi) who is Alvin's good fren when he was in Daejeon, Korea... and of course, a 3 hours drive back to our hotel... 6 hour drive for a 1 1/2 hour dinner... but as my good taiwanese fren who's with us said "都来了几千公里，何必在乎这6个小时？" He makes sense, we flew few thousands of kilometers what's this few hundred?

Then we ventured to the northern most part of Japan somewhere where we could almost see Russia territory and 2 offlying islands... saw a beautiful young mom who is the 老板娘of the hotel and even chatted with her, how she met her husband and stuff...
of course go climb mountain with nothing much prepared... but of course the mountain was just a walk up, not really a climb up... Going to 温泉　whenever possible... which is everyday actually haha

Eating ウニ(raw sea urchin) which made me puke in the middle of the night and thinking that i would die on a 夜行(overnite) JR 特急(express) train.... cos we were in the wilderness with no hospitals nearby so the guy just told me to bear with it for 4 hours... if it's still very bad then, he would drop me off cos' that's the nearest place with a hospital and he wasn't even sure if it was 24 hours...

2005-07-27T20:13:00.002+08:00

The world's biggest Kaleidoscope
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2005-07-27T20:13:00.001+08:00

Toshiba Pavillion
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2005-07-27T20:13:00.000+08:00

The Mitsubishi Pavillion
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2005-07-27T20:12:00.000+08:00

The Singapore Pavillion in World Expo, surprised that it has a queue, and this place sells chicken rice how about that
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Aichi & Hokkaido

2005-07-27T20:08:00.000+08:00

Came back from Aichi on Tuesday and yes, it was hot and crowded but then it was definitely worth the visit...
well at least i had a been to a world expo wahaa... I visited a lot of countries pavillions, had African food for lunch and Bulgarian food for dinner. France pavillion impressed me the most.

Anyway Singapore pavillion was decently done and it seemed to be quite popular among japanese since it even had a queue...

But the highlight of the day was Toshiba pavillion for me. First they take a picture of your face, then withing minutes, the map your features to a computer and walla...
You appear in animated flim almost immediately, that's quite cool...

Ok now I have reached Hokkaido, spending the night at Sapporo, somehow after reaching here, I feel much more calmer, maybe it's just not as crowded and stressful as Tokyo...

Time to go travelling....

2005-07-24T10:06:00.000+08:00

Ok, it's time to run havoc in Japan... I will be going to World Expo tonight. In case you people don't know what is the world expo, just check this out.
Well I would probably try my luck at some of the big corporations pavillions like sony, toshiba, toyota to try to see some really fancy new technology. Of course I would want to visit Singapore pavillion, everyone's whose been there has been giving rave reviews on the place.

Well, I am officially depressed before the start of my journey. All only because I look at the modules I am taking back home gives me stress. The only few things that are making me happy is seeing my dad and yuting, and of course get to drive again. Evaluating my past 4 months here, it may sound strange, Japan is actually less stressful than Singapore, but to be fair, I am here as an exchange student which basically means I am stress-free when it comes to academic work.

To sound euphemistic, Singapore has prepared me well for a short stint in Tokyo. The fact is Singapore is no less stressful than Tokyo. 2 hours of commuting are common in Tokyo, but I am sure when I go back to Singapore, anywhere outside 1 hour is considered far.

Well, at least I am looking forward to getting my ass to the beautiful Hokkaido, see you people later!

2005-07-22T11:44:00.000+08:00

Well almost the whole class...
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End of Term

2005-07-22T11:30:00.000+08:00

Finally I have reached the end of lessons in Keio... sad and relieved at the same time... now it's time to do some travelling, but also to say goodbye to some of my friends.

Keio is so much more relac than NUS, think NUS lives up to it's reputation of one of the most difficult universities to study in...

So my Japanese class went out together for a drinking session and karaoke, except for a French guy, Italian girl, Korean girl, Chinese guy who were either sick or busy, it was actually a good attendance of 14/18.

The German girl is a singer in a rock band,and when she does Japanese songs, you definitely can't tell that she's non Japanese.

So though our class doesn't interact much during class, however we all got together well at the end. We weren't tooo studious and boring a class, but everyone puts in effort in learning good Japanese. And I love my class for it's diversity...

Singapore, M'sia, HK, China, Taiwan, Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, France, Italy, German, American, Austria, Finland... my god, heard that we are the most diverse class in the whole school...

When will we ever stop making weird records?

2005-07-20T19:58:00.000+08:00

SINGAPORE : As part of Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) 50th Anniversary celebrations, 536 first-year undergraduates got together and broke the world record for the largest number of blind dates.

electronic paper?

2005-07-19T16:19:00.000+08:00

TOKYO : Japanese researchers showed off a bendable electronic paper that uses almost no power whilst displaying images, making it useful for advertising on buildings and vehicles.

Electronics maker Fujitsu said the electronic paper was the first that can preserve images in vivid color and without distortion when they are folded or bent.

It said the paper has an image memory function that means it has no need for electricity other than a minimal amount when changing the picture.

WOw, as i said, japanese don't invent space shuttles, or nuclear energy. They are the ones who gave us rice cookers,karaoke, LCDS, and now electronic paper. Think which of these have actually made your life better...

2005-07-19T16:02:00.000+08:00

SINGAPORE : Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura will make an official visit to Singapore on Tuesday at the invitation of Foreign Minister George Yeo.

This will be the first official visit by Mr Machimura in his capacity as Foreign Minister.

Mr Machimura last visited Singapore in August 2002 as Acting Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Mr Machimura will call on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Foreign Minister George Yeo and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean.

Aiyah, confirm ask Singapore to support Japan to get into Security Council. That's what Japanese politicians are all thinking about now, talk their way, buy their way through
But anyway, this foreign minister is quite a zai guy, wonder how the newbie George Yeo would cope

2005-07-19T15:59:00.000+08:00

100 minutes of fireworks, I would be going to another one in Hokkaido, alvin, you lucky dog... I would bring you to another 100min fireworks
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Fireworks

2005-07-19T15:49:00.000+08:00

Sorry no pics for fireworks, decided to steal from Tomoko(Sorry if you are reading this, lend my your picture ok?)(And now i realise she just took it off the official website)

It was crowded, but we chose a decent spot that wasn't too bad, laid a groundsheet and had a little picnic there with my friends. Well you may think, fireworks only what... ya, in Singapore fireworks is a 10 minutes affair, over here, it's a 100 minute affair, so we can afford to do pasar malam.

One of my happiest outings with my class and friends, and the ironical thing of the day was, all the non-japanese girls were wearing kimono, while all the japanese weren't. Anyway if not for the stupid last train, I would have hanged out till late, so i missed out karaoke with my friends. darnz....

For Singapore, we scream and shout when there are fireworks somehow in Tokyo region (with the nearby prefectures)alone (not to mention the whole Japan) they hold over 100 fireworks display over the summer. So for people who really love fireworks, i think you should come over to live here

2005-07-15T21:56:00.003+08:00

Woo hoo, waterfall!
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2005-07-15T21:56:00.002+08:00

Hear no evil, speak no evil, See no evil
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2005-07-15T21:56:00.001+08:00

I somehow like this picture alot
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2005-07-15T21:56:00.000+08:00

Tosho-gu
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2005-07-15T21:55:00.000+08:00

World Heritage
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Nikko

2005-07-15T21:39:00.000+08:00

Seriously this is one place to visit in Japan, though it's a bit far, like 3 hours from my dorm but i set off early enough and reached back at dorm 10pm.

The main attraction is 東照宮(Tousho-gu).For those who know a bit of Japanese history, this place is the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a general many centuries ago. It was built of his grandson Tokugawa Iemitsu (I think, correct me if i am wrong) and it costs 400 million US dollars in today's terms.

It's definitely a place worth visiting for all it's nature and shrines and temples. Highly recommended! That's why it's a world heritage site.

To think of it, there are 11 world heritage sites in Japan, and I have gone to 6, (Nikko area, Himeji castle, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima A-dome, Itsukushima Shrine) 5 more to go. Something that I would want to complete in this lifetime. Japanese have a saying of 3 scenes of Japan, (日本三景)(Itsukushima, Amanohashidate, Matsushima), and i have been to all 3.... lovely collection of memories in Japan....

Nikko pics imagestation 372-402

2005-07-10T18:07:00.000+08:00

Yes i am serious....i am not joking
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2005-07-10T18:05:00.000+08:00

Anybody wanna study in United Nations University? Wonder if they give Scholarship with a bond, I don't mind joining them
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2005-07-10T18:04:00.001+08:00

Nice glass building in Aoyama... Prada has a boutique inside
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2005-07-10T18:04:00.000+08:00

Crowded Takeshita street
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2005-07-10T18:03:00.002+08:00

Takeshita Street
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2005-07-10T18:03:00.001+08:00

Cosplayers slacking around
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2005-07-10T18:03:00.000+08:00

Cosplayers
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2005-07-10T18:02:00.000+08:00

Meiji Shrine
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Spending time with myself

2005-07-10T17:47:00.000+08:00

Finally i finished most end term reports and an irritating test yesterday, and finally able to spend some time with myself. So I took a 4 hour walking course near Shibuya. Tried to jio some friends along, some were living too far, those living in dorm still has lotsa school work to take care off, but it's nice to spend some time wandering around. 33 degrees today, not the best day to go out, but at least it is not raining like the past few days.

First to Yoyogi park, just lotsa people singing and dancing in the parks, we don't see that often at home. Then to Meiji Shrine, just another shrine just bigger and nicer, and a 10 min walk from the gate to the inner shrine

So a lot of cosplayers just gather around there and they just talk cock, japanese youngsters, sometimes i really think that they have nothing better to do. Then just around the corner is Takeshita Street, just another fashion street, with lots of people walking around.

Near Omote Sando, another high class area, with all the boutiques arranged along the street, I stopped nearby for a dessert in Yoku Moku, pretty famous in Japan for its confectionary.

Well i spent a nice day with myself, and i only spent 840 yen ($14)on the dessert for this whole trip cos' i mainly did walking no transport costs involved... well some pictures... or go to my imagestation pics 363-371 for all of them

2nd class student

2005-07-06T18:12:00.000+08:00

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said there was something missing in Singapore's system and the country's best often did not go to the universities here.

Hi there my friends, most of us have just became 2nd class students.

Mr Lee said as Singapore's universities attract the best faculty and students from the wider region, especially China and India, they can then become world-class institutions

There are times I would just like to tell my Japanese friends. I am not a smart Singaporean student, cos' the smartest go to the States and Britain. Or should I tell them not to come to NUS, cos' even though we are ranked top 20 in the world, you people would end up interacting with not the smartest Singaporeans. Please go to the States and then talk to the Singaporeans and Americans there, cos' they are the smartest

Well look on the bright side, at least NUS can say that NUS is not going to suffer from inferiority complex from now on....are we not the brightest students in Singapore? Ya maybe not the best, but the "best" are going to serve their term in the government sector after they graduate, while I try to get into Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers

The Minister Mentor, who was presented with the NUS Eminent Alumni award, also suggested sending Singapore's scholarship students first to NUS or NTU, and then abroad for their postgraduate studies.

Another way is to twin courses so students can spend time at a local university, and at a top university overseas.

hmmm, how many years of bondage would the scholars have to go through then in the govt sector. Since the market rate is 6 years for overseas studies, 4 years for local. If rojak together, then that makes it 5 years of bond. Or if you do honours in Singapore then 2 years of Masters, that makes it (2/3 X 4) + (1/3 X 5) = 4 1/3 yrs
maybe I am wrong, the smarter people in MOE would make a optimal calculation.

Being Overseas

2005-06-30T15:11:00.000+08:00

Seriously, i advise all my friends to go for exchange to whereover it may be even for one semester.

1. To escape the "quite boring" Singapore for a while
2. To get away from hot hot Singapore for a while
3. Your whole brain of a narrow viewpoint disappears after talking to people from other parts of Asia, Europe and America....

People look at Singapore differently, you would be shocked at the stereotypes that people have of Singapore. The most hilarious one is that you almost have a policeman behind your back all the time,so that when you litter, they would fine you...

Take a look at things differently. How Chinese in Japan think of the riots, and how those GUAI LAN Japanese writers try to suan China after the riots break out. How some People who lived in Singapore say that they have never seen anything how things seem to flow and move so efficiently and smoothly except in Switzerland...

The city looks and runs the way you wish Los Angeles would. Traffic flows freely over wide, flower-lined highways. There is no obvious litter or pollution, there are no slums or beggars. The people look industrious and purposeful, wealthy and satisfied. Services, from garbage collection to buses, run with a mindful orderliness that I have encountered nowhere else on earth except Switzerland.

Wacky Day in Tokyo

2005-06-28T21:53:00.000+08:00

A guy jumped off the platform into the railway and died. He chose the rush hour and the most important line (yamanote line which goes in a loop to the major places in tokyo) to jump into. So the whole line just kinda stopped working and of course i was caught in a dilemma of how i was going to get to school.

In the end, i gave up waiting for the train to resume operations and took an alternative route thru the subway which took me an extra half an hour. So I reached school about half hour late. The news reported that the accident affected 110,000 commuters during the rush hour.

And then today was the hottest day in June in the whole history of Tokyo, the highest temperature reached 36 degrees celcius. I think it should also be the hottest day in my personal history. I think that is why i felt pissed off and drowsy today... and had to drink lotsa water, and of course my brain was left wondering why all the Japanese salaryman were still wearing their suits as if it was 20 degrees...

2005-06-27T00:27:00.000+08:00

Sugayama Kaoru, the new princess of Japanese volleyball
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Sports in Japan

2005-06-27T00:17:00.000+08:00

Japanese just love sports, be it watching or playing, that's why their level of sports is higher here...

Japanese and Brazilians have an interesting relation. Lots of Japanese have moved to Brazil a long time ago, and now there are a lot of brazilians working in Japan.

So in soccer, the confederations cup, japan drew with brazil and did not manage to get into the knockout stages. Then today I watched the japanese women volleyball team take on the brazilians who are the defending champions of this world grand prix. Japan took the 1st 2 sets, before losing the next 2. In the decider, it was a see-saw set, i got damn exciting. it went into sudden death scoreline and finally the brazilians won it 20-18...almost.

Just like the Japanese have never won the brazilians in soccer, the girls have never won in volleyball too.

Nevertheless, japanese sportspeople of the matches would go to Nakamura for soccer and the new princess of Japanese Volleyball (菅山かおる)Sugayama Kaoru.
She's only 169cm, not that tall but then she can jump up to 321cm, don't think normal people can do that. And her digs and those brilliant smashes were what kept Japan in the match.... and of course, she's one of the cutest in the team...

Lazy Sunday

2005-06-19T16:53:00.000+08:00

Some stuff I did in the course of the week...

Went to watch 電車男 (Densha Otoko) on wednesday night with Mark and 2 of my Japanese friends, Takayuki (Waterboys lead) plays a geek, who likes computers, Anime, and all the figurines of anime chracters and hangs around a place called Akibahara (Akiba for short), where it's like the Sim Lim and Bugis district where we have in Singapore... So being an otaku(geek), he's never had luck with girls, but things happen in the train, well sounds cliche, but Tokyolites love the train, and it's where the most weird and interesting things happen in Tokyo.
So in the end, he got together with Miki Nakatani who played "Hermes" in the show, the daughter of a rich guy. Yes some rich people still take trains as it's still the easiest way to get around Tokyo. The novel was a hit in Japan, it's not really a novel, but the whole book was written like a irc chat between 電車男　and his net-frens, like what a geek would do... and if it ever airs in Singapore, I would recommend it. It's cliche, but the funny parts of it are really funny

One of the worst sundays I ever had in Japan...

I woke up early cos I slept early last night, I looked at the work piled up in my file, and decided to try to finish them as soon as possible. My Japanese presentation, writeup on Starbucks Japan, the routine homework, and my Economics presentation.

I can sense the end of my term here in Japan, as I hand up my application for the return ticket and my withdrawal form for the dorm. It's really never enough in Japan I would say, there are still a thousand things I would wanna do here. But as with everything in life, you are constrained with the money and time factor. Trying to priortise the things that I want to do here, to watch a soccer match in their stadium, and to visit the Aichi World Exhibition, and DisneySea....

It's so unfair, Liverpool, Man U, Juve, Barca, Bayern, Valencia are all here for matches, while if anyone of them comes to Singapore, it would be extremely big news...

As for Aichi World Exhibition, I was surprised to hear that the Singapore booth is actually very popular among the tourists. With a simulator for the weather in Singapore, and food like Hokkien Mee and Goreng Pisang....

Not to mention that I get to watch the lastest dramas and anime on TV live. Not to say that S'pore or HK dramas suck, but it's hard to find some outstanding ones among them. Not that all Japanese drama are like WOW! but they are amazingly consistent in quality, very few dramas have made me fall asleep, but quite a few have made me watch them 5 episodes at a go...And yes please don't even try to compare them with Korean dramas, all korean dramas I watched so far made me sleep, although Japanese now do watch quite a lot of Korean dramas, and Mr Bae have made lots of money here, because the richest people here are the "Obaasans", they are the ones who zip around Tokyo in their latest red Mercs SL65, or the Ferrari Modena 360...

Well there's no such thing as the best of both worlds, I wanna enjoy life in Tokyo, but I still have homework to do....

2005-06-12T22:42:00.001+08:00

Interesting old man selling stuff in Yokohama
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2005-06-12T22:42:00.000+08:00

The Ferris Wheel and the river
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2005-06-12T22:41:00.000+08:00

Habour view of Yokohama
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2005-06-12T22:40:00.000+08:00

Chinatown of Yokohama
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Yokohama

2005-06-12T22:22:00.000+08:00

Went to have lunch at Yokohama's Chinatown today, well it's a nice place just 1 hour outside Tokyo. Their Chinese food doesn't taste like Chinese food, also taste like Japanese food. Think to survive, you would have to accomodate the food to the taste of the Japanese.

Well now I know why people working in Tokyo live in Yokohama, the whole atmosphere is just so different from Tokyo. A much better place to live in.
Well enjoy the pictures from 346 to 362 in my imagestation.

2005-06-05T22:53:00.000+08:00

Check out this response for the Tiananmen incident from the Chinese government

China insists the heavy-handed response to what it called a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" paved the way for 16 years of robust economic growth.

bullshit, world class bullshit

Kamakura（鎌倉）

2005-06-02T17:52:00.001+08:00

The ancient city of Kamakura, 1 hour from downtown Tokyo. It was the ancient capital around the 1100s, and has lotsa Buddhism heritage.

So Mark and I went around to explore the area, it was about half hour away from Yokohama, the 2nd largest city in Japan. Well, what can I say, it's a good break away from hectic Tokyo, and lotsa greenery around the place. Of course temples may all look the same, but no harm just stroll around in a leisurely pace.

Well, lots of students were there on a field excursion, to let them know more about Buddhism in Japan. Kamakura is a must go for people who visit Tokyo, I would say.

Just go to my imagestation and check out pic 313 onwards, picture says a billion words. (Sorry ah, since yen count by the thousands, million yen isn't much, a billion is)

Of course what excursion is counted complete without a nice Parfait?

2005-06-02T17:52:00.000+08:00

The temples of Kamakura, the famous big Buddha
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2005-06-02T17:51:00.000+08:00

More Parfaits!
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2005-06-02T17:50:00.000+08:00

Parfaits Galore
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2005-06-01T21:42:00.001+08:00

The amazing junction of Shibuya
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2005-06-01T21:42:00.000+08:00

4 non japanese guys, 1 japanese guy and 3 japanese girls in a Aladdinish restaurant
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Uniquely Tokyo

2005-06-01T21:26:00.000+08:00

No, I am not trying to make fun of the STB's slogan, but seriously there's a lot of things that are uniquely Tokyo

Went with some other people to go enjoy some interesting Arabian restaurant. There is nothing Arabic about the food, but the setting is like Aladdin.

First we rub the lamp, and then suddenly the doors opens, 3 ladies clad like "Jasmine" shouts welcome. Really nice dresses, baring their midriff and then the all shiny 2 piece dress and then some elaborate headdress... then we were guided to some cavern where we sit on the carpets and have our food, very hard to explain in words but it was quite nicely done. It's like a theme park restaurant.

Went to catch my first movie in Japan today, it's called "female" with Hasegawa Kyoko as one of the lead actresses. It's actually 5 short films put into one, it was more erotic than I thought, with nude scenes and stuff, but no, no such stuff from Hasegawa.... Then I saw this whole bunch of people gathering in front of the Shibuya Starbucks, very Singaporeanish, so went to talk to them, they are from VJ... Kau, nowdays people come to Japan during the mid year break, damn rich hor.... Anyway finally took a picture from Starbucks overlooking one of the busiest junction in Tokyo.....

Some bad things happened to me too this couple of days, got cornered of some sales people trying to sell me discount movie vouchers along the road of Shinjuku, even genna pushed by them to the corner, they are damn smart, I thought there were only 2 guys doing that, suddenly this guy in a suit came out from nowhere pushed me back into the corner when I said I had no time and had to rush, he pushed me back to the corner when I was about to run off and said," Please listen to what we have to say till the end." Fucking pissed, I waited for another chance and used the oldest trick in the book, looked at my watch, and then pointed somewhere behind them, pushed them aside and then ran into the human crowd.

Was also at Nakano, a small town off main downtown Tokyo like 10 min away. It has the largest anime, manga, Idol collectibles in the whole of Tokyo. So ya, found a set of Bleach keychains(handphone chains) for 15 bucks (set of 5, think got ichigo, kon, the girl, the arrow guy and forgot about the last one). Lotsa posters, and other interesting stuff. Would make a trip back to that place...

2005-05-29T23:50:00.003+08:00

Still more cheerleaders
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2005-05-29T23:50:00.002+08:00

Finally a picture of the game
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2005-05-29T23:50:00.001+08:00

More cheerleaders for you!
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2005-05-29T23:50:00.000+08:00

Cheerleaders doing their stuff
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Keio Waseda Baseball game

2005-05-29T22:44:00.001+08:00

Went to watch the Keio University and Waseda University baseball game, a highly contested game cos of the heavy rivalry since they are the oldest universities and the most respected universities in tokyo.

So I just post some pics lor... we won that game, well their cheering is like so organised then they spend more time organising the cheering than watching the baseball, so it's like quite weird...

Things just get better

2005-05-26T22:11:00.000+08:00

Ok, you people are going to be jealous... Don't think I am going to watch Juve in action cos' BARCELONA's in town~~!!!

ok so I think I would go watch Barca instead of Juve... woohoo

Some interesting things I found today.

A bag which comes with speakers, it's a radio and u can connect your mp3 player or cd players etc. Has been heatproofed and can carry up to 8 cans of drinks. Ideal for a picnic.

Rainbow Maker: fancy a rainbow in your room everyday? Just add water and you get a nice rainbow everyday!

Sinful

2005-05-22T21:46:00.000+08:00

I felt like I have sinned today. I have spent so much money these few days and I think I am going to eat grass for at least a week.

First, my new 36100=US$361 yen Sony mp3 30gb mp3 player arrives!
Then Mark and I went to the upmarket Roppongi hills area to take a walk... the area where the rich stay and the streets are filled with Branded goods... and where Grand Hyatt hotel is...
So we ended up in a restaurant and decided to go berserk, so we each spent 6500yen=US$65

And yes! Unless we can't get the tickets, my japanese friend is damn enthu to go watch Juve... it's not the full team but most of the stars are coming... the list of players are here...Juve Teamlist Notable absentee is Ibrahimovic... other than that I am not really sure...Piero, Nedved and Tacchinardi and Thuram would all be here...

Suddenly I realise something... Juve and Bayern... what do they have in common with Japan...??? History student anyone?? So can we explain why Singapore watch EPL than any other league??