89 days in Tsuruoka

2006-06-27T23:07:00.000+09:00

This is SO COOL! Well, it is good having Toshi-kun and Hikaru-kun, the 2 of you back.. But then again, you guys never left in the first place. =>

Btw, I have told yall that Gabor is coming Singapore coming August, more details:

Bereczki Gabor: it is confirmed
Bereczki Gabor: I am going to Sp!
Bereczki Gabor: arrive at the night of the 3rd of Aug
Bereczki Gabor: leave in the morning of 6th August
Bereczki Gabor: lets have fun together!
Chin Ho: yea!

CHEERS! and then, Gabor was gonna ask Satya if he wants to come too....
On another day, I asked:

Chin Ho: is Satya coming?
Bereczki Gabor: no
Bereczki Gabor: I go alone
Bereczki Gabor: Satya may go on a different occasion
Chin Ho: ive told azhar and yaomin ure coming in august
Bereczki Gabor: good
Bereczki Gabor: how about accomodationM
Bereczki Gabor: can you help me?
Chin Ho: different occasion? u mean another day?
Bereczki Gabor: well, if he is to visit home sometime
Bereczki Gabor: but I dont know his schedule
Chin Ho: i havne't brought up the accomodation to my sis yet
Bereczki Gabor: anybody else you can think of?
Chin Ho: but, if ure in malaysia, u can stay at my house
Bereczki Gabor: spore is close from your home, right?
Bereczki Gabor: but then we cant oparty
Chin Ho: maybe yaomin's house?
Chin Ho: azhar house i think lil chance
Bereczki Gabor: heheh
Chin Ho: party means celebrate in the house?
Bereczki Gabor: going out
Bereczki Gabor: coming back drunk

Its already sounding like a party x> waku waku suru yo ne! Anyway, don't fret, I already got accomodation covered.

You guys must make yourself available okay? I will try to call the fyp mates too, from my group last year. And Gabor was discussing he wanted to visit Singapore 2 days, Malaysia 1 day. I haven't got any idea where to bring him in Malaysia yet... though I lived there since young, Id think its a boring place, not anywhere interesting that I knew of` Hmm...

Well, we'll see..

2006-06-11T12:23:00.000+09:00

Let's get together some day and go back to Japan together. I think Chinho's Japanese will have improved a lot. For me, I have not been touching Japanese for about half a year, might try to pick it up when I am posted to a vessel. Or maybe there is a vocation where I need to use Japanese to communicate to other ships out in the sea. Hahaha...

2006-05-28T21:05:00.000+09:00

I am missing Japan! Taiwan is SOOO not like Japan! I wanna go back to Japan!

2006-05-18T23:27:00.000+09:00

I HAVE GROWN FAT!!

Zzz... I noticed a (growing) spare tyre on my tummy when I was in the Bathroom just now! ARGH Kill'it! Glutony is sin!! !@#$%^&*

UPDATES!!!

2006-05-01T22:54:00.000+09:00

I contacted Koushi and Ayako recently, just here for some updates` :)

Koushi is erm... Fine haha.. I only got to know from him its now Holiday in Japan, which I later get to know from my Brother that its Golden Week there and much later from Gabor Golden Week is starting only this Wednesday. :) Well, anyway back to Koushi; he's fine.. busy with his job and badminton as usual. Nothing much... Well, and most importantly not married yet (he's attached btw). :)

Well, for Ayako.. its more happening I reckon, Hahah` Ayako is moving to Okayama this Autumn, going to live with her Boyfriend over there~ ( ^-^)/\ 素晴らしい！！How wonderful is that :p Well, Ayako might be the girl I liked before, but I wish her the best for this migration. She said Okayama is kinda far from Tsuruoka(Yamagata) so its going to be a huge plan. =) She also say she's going to miss everyone from then.

As for me... nothing much.. Working, Studying and had moved to Singapore to live with my friend (Not a girl :>)

And YAOMIN and AZHAR ... Both in Army. Azhar I believed have moved to Taiwan for his training, and Yaomin went into Navy. Working hard and getting fit` Hahah` kinda unlike me, only eating, sleeping and working :<

Going to grow fat soon~ Zzzzzz

Been a YEAR

2006-04-09T14:16:00.000+09:00

Thanks to yaomin for notifying me, now its been 365 Days since then! Time flies~ I only thought its been like... maybe 6 months? Omg~

Anyway, Im not bored Ok! Im just making sure this blog doesn't get deleted due to inactivity. You know I hate to see that :p

Cheers n C'ya...
I suppose if Gabor or anyone gets a new girl and has an interesting story, he should write about it here. It'll be great! and I want to know about it 2.

- Chinho

2006-01-08T03:40:00.000+09:00

Dum Dum

Link to my personal blog

2005-11-03T02:59:00.000+09:00

I wonder if Blogger will delete this blog due to inactivity.. maybe I'll post up smth once in awhile, to make sure things are alright. Don't really want this blog to be deleted or smth.. I saved up main entries archive too.

Anyway..
My Old/New blog` some people might know the history =>

I didn't know what, but I decided I shouldn't let too many people know about my blog, perhaps only a hand few of people(that is ppl I guess Im farmiliar/comfortable with) whom ever access 89-in-tsu blog again should know about it.

Holy Shit.

2005-08-06T22:49:00.000+09:00

I was just looking through my photos in Japan.

I missed Gabor.

=/

2005-07-17T01:27:00.000+09:00

Its 100 days since then. A day worth marking here.

2005-06-29T23:25:00.000+09:00

I wonder now how many people do visit 89days-in-Tsu anymore: Gabor? Satya? Likai? What about all others? mysterious 20thCenturyFox, Michael, Christ? not to mention known personnel whom tag anonymously, eg. Yukari! :) Really miss everyone'

Speaking about Yukari(Hiep), he left for Vietnam again a couple of days ago. Then again, he's going to come back to Singapore in July for our Polytechnic Graduation Ceremony 2005. Afterwhich, he's going to UK for his university studies.
New chapter of his life in another country. I hope he had great time while he was in Singapore :)

Yesterday, I got updates from Gabor through SKYPE; he called Hinako and chat for some time. "Hinako was surprisingly friendly!" he said. Basically the 2 girls have stopped working in UNIQLO, that leaves them with 1 job each now, instead of the usual 2 jobs in the past. Gabor proposed since Ayako have only 1 job now, maybe I could give her mails and she will reply, just as she has more time now. =\ Hmm.. Im afraid that might not be the case...

3 days ago, had a small talk with Yaomin while we travel home from our Jap lesson; it seems that he and Azhar is having a plan for Gabor. Well, Im not supposed to say what.. but maybe we could just wait. It could be fun` :p

-Chinho

gabor fa le

2005-04-27T18:17:00.000+09:00

oh, i saw so many new female faces on your blog. Gabor is a luck guy. in Chinese, gabor fa le, fa da le!! =) Likai

Shit Hanami

2005-04-26T23:36:00.000+09:00

This year hanami was a joke. it came too late and it was windy rainy and cold all the time.
Finally the poor cherry blossoms opened full this Sunday but I think they deeply regretted it as the temperature was 7C with a cold wind that made it feel like 3C (according to weather.yahoo.com).

Here are some pictures about the heroic cherry trees:

As you can see some of them already started losing the flowers. I dont know this part of biology, but in my country fruit tree flowers are usually germinated with the help of bees. Of course they can use the wind to carry the pollen, too, but it is not that effective so there wont be much cherry this year I guess.

There was a hanami party of Keio University students on that cold, windy Sunday (what a joke, there was no Sun at all). The party commenced at 1 o clock, survived a few showers then dispersed after 2 hours struggling with the elements.

C2H5OH was not very popular in this cold-endurance test.

The cold rain started falling so people made a shelter of the plastic sheet brought to sit on.

So that's all I can say about this shit Hanami.

Btw Chinho's previous post is starting to make this blog look like a gay website, so let me add my naked picture, too.

I dont know if I told you this story before. Once upon a time I was wandering in the suburbs of London after a light party at a weekday around 12 pm. I was waiting for the night bus in the bus stop with an average, normal looking young bloke, who looked like 22 to me. The night bus came and stormed past us without stopping. I was outrageous and started talking to the guy. It soon turned out that the bus was not scheduled in that bus stop but the one about 1 km down the road. I offered the guy to hire a taxi together, because he was going to a location near my home. But he refused, saying he had no money. So we started walking down and to ease the boredness I started asking questions to guy, who was answering all my questions readily:
- What do you do?
- I study at the City University.
- What do you study?
- Art therapy.
- What is it?
- Mentally sick people draw pictures and they get cured through their creativity ( or stg like this I dont clearly remember )
- How old are you?
- 27.
- Oh, what a surprise, you are older than me, though I thought you were just 22. So you are finishing school soon?
- Oh no actually I just started it this year.
- And what did you do before school?
- Well I worked as a shop window designer - ehh, actually I just finished with an alcohol therapy a year ago.
- Oh, so you liked drinking. How much did you drink a day?
- About half a liter , liter.
- What, wine?
- No, vodka.
- Vow, you are cool. But I think you are much better of to have drunk alcohol than using narcotics.
- Well, I have tried everything, cocain, heroin, marijuana, but vodka turned out to be the best.
- And may I ask you why you were drinking so heavily? You must have had a reason for it.
- Well, I had a relationship that badly ended, so I started drinking.
- Oh, come on man, no woman on earth deserves to be regretted that much.
- Well, actually, it was a guy.
Damn.

Well, today's quiz:
What is the origin of the 7-day week? Why is it so widespread?

2005-04-26T01:27:00.000+09:00

Yo thanks Gabor for the photos first.

As many would already knew, infamous stone Victor and metallic coffeshop-guy hiep had already embarked on their vacation; in fact, they're in Korea now already.
Oh yes, for more information check out the metallic coffeeshop-guy's blog
>> http://lonesome-traveller.blogspot.com

There will be a chalet soon .. hopefully more interesting pictures and stories will roll in.

Oh yes ... a new post will be coming out shortly.

Some early Hanami pictures

2005-04-21T17:54:00.000+09:00

I took them with my mobile phone today in Tsuruoka park.

Shit I got bad news today. Eriko is leaving for Tokyo next monday. (;_;)

Bad period, its like PMS

2005-04-20T00:21:00.000+09:00

I think I am losing touch of contacts back in Tsu..

Likai replies very slowly these day.. might be becoz he have difficulty accessing the net. そして　Likaiと　自信がある

Gabor: Wassup.. whos not replying you? Im curious` Mai's not replying me, for 3 days at least' dis bad

Btw .. proud to announce the commencement of LeHiep's blog
http://lonesome-traveller.blogspot.com/

20th Century Fox who are uuu? I really want to know who are you mz` =\ its coming to become like in the movies, some pyschos always hiding and doing stuffs. Have you watched "PhoneBooth" be4? No offence, but its starting to look like that to me =)

I am ruined

2005-04-18T01:15:00.000+09:00

oh, my buddies left me,
oh, she is not replying,
oh, my future is bleak,
oh, I got no more choice left:

Bye bye bye!

2005-04-14T02:14:00.000+09:00

Okay, this was supposed to be something of a blog about my sis. But then, I hasn't get the pictures ready yet, and realised someone must blog soon. So here goes!

My Trip to HolaVila Island Sentosa just 1 day after I land in Singapore.

As some of you already knew, Sentosa is one of the main tourist attraction in Singapore, popular with its beautiful white-sand beach.
Sentosa was once a peaceful fishing village, however the peace did not last. In some year I dunno, the village was purged and a British military fortress was founded on it. Afterwhich yadayada... turned into a tourist attraction. Ok, this history part is not part of the blog, but I just want to show Gabor I know some history!

Early in the morning, me and my friends(4 together) was to meet each other at a train station. I arrived first and waited there, standing. Half-way waiting, a lost-in-direction tourist came to me, she asked me for the best way to reach Sentosa. Her name was "Doas" (I hope I spelt it correct.. but its pronounced like Door-arse), from Switzerland. I wasn't sure about the direction as well, because its been so many years since I last visited Sentosa so I asked her to wait with me, for my friends so she could tell them her plans and ask.

L to R:Weiliang, Clemen, Doas, Shah and I am holding the camera

After the help we offer, we splited with Doas. She went for Sentosa and we decided to go for Breakfast first. We ate, talk the talk and went for the beach. Anyway, the main objective for this trip to Sentosa was for Shah; it seems that he has a body-building competition neared and needed some copper-tanned skin for it.

We took the trip and finally drop off at final destination, Siloso Beach(Western part of Sentosa).
Skies was gloomy and sun is hiding. Shah is troubled and unhappy for the fact he couldn't get the tanned. However, we(Clemen, Weiliang, Me) continued our activity to play some ball. We predicted sun may come out later, so all everyone has to do now is wait. Shah dropped in and play some ball for sometime too.

THEN, sun came out! Sentosa is beautiful!!!

It became so hot afterwhich, and everyone is baked up ... Shah is enjoying it though, but of course he still felt the heat.

Clemen(with the ball) was in a shelter, whereas Shah of coz is out of it

Show-Off Time!

And then, when we were about to leave(in the restroom changing), rained!

Gloomy..

we got back though afterwhich. So no big deal .. it was tiring; sweat, big sun, rain, run, travel home'

---

Oh yea` sometimes I get question like "How was it in Japan. Were there any ghost?" or "Any scary stuffs happened?".
Check this out ... taken in a park, at around 2am. Over-exposure of lights? Willies? 3rd Form? You decide

its not end. but i miss ya voice! lets skype!!

2005-04-09T02:15:00.000+09:00

Well, we WILL CONTINUE to blog, this blog is not going down.

Anyway, just an update about stuffs:
Holiday in Tokyo at: Odaiba, Akihabara!!(WOW) , DisneyLand
Arriving Singapore:
Flight Number >> NH901B
Arriving >> 9th April @ Terminal 1 Changi Airport
Arriving Time >> ~22:20

Dr Ng, Ronnie! Calvin? HERE WE COME!! =>

This is the end

2005-04-07T17:05:00.000+09:00

They left today. Their empty desks are as sad as empty hospital beds.
The worst moment was yesterday when they gave me their bycicle keys, that just a week ago belonged to Likai. The 3 keys on the table looked like a the laid down arms of a defeated army after a long and heroic fight.
So there's gonna be no more Friday eating out at Kurumaya ramen, I dont feel like going there anymore alone. No more Monday night fever in karaoke bar. No more Ayako, Hinako, aishitteru emails. No more "What!?!" or "Sumatra is the capital of Indonesia".
Spring has arrived finally after the long, deadly winter. But there will be no joy in Tsuruoka this year, the cherry blossom will not bloom for us.
Life is a bitch.
:(

Our Last Crazy Night Out

2005-04-07T05:07:00.000+09:00

On Monday evening, we had a party. It was a last party for the three of us who will be leaving for Tokyo. Below are some pictures.

There were quite a number of us there. Me, Yaomin, Chin Ho, Gabor, Sugi, Hinako, Marie, Ma-shi, and Eriko. I cooked spicy stir-fried chicken as a dish, and Hinako really loved it. So too did Gabor. It was noted by a certain someone that Hinako is a fan of spicy food. (Lolz.)

After the party, we went for Karaoke. Impromptu decision. But everyone wanted to go anyway. I have several videos on this which is a MUST WATCH for my FYP group members (Daniel, Novia, Tracy). You guys have got to see Sugi singing and dancing!

Gabor and Chin Ho doing the Sakura sign. It was Sakura-craze after Hinako and Eriko sang the song.

I thought it was over after the Karaoke, but no! It was not! Ma-shi was hungry, so everyone decided to have a quick meal at Yoshinoya. Sugi decided not to tag along. Over there, I only can eat a salad which costs 90 yen.

They had more plans after that. We went up the mountains (there was still snow there) and guess what I saw when I exited the car upon reaching our destination? A beautiful layout of stars in the sky! I have never seen such a wonderful thing in my life (except maybe in the movies). It was a beautiful sight. There were countless of stars all over the sky, and some were overly excited when they saw shooting stars. I don;t really believe in wishing upon a falling star, but I saw one, so I made a wish anyway. After some time star-gazing, we went down and waited for a sunrise which never came. Lolz.

We had to track back to Center Building because Gabor was really tired, and he was sleeping in the car. So after dropping him off, Marie asked us where we wanted to go because it will be the last time going out with them, and since Hinako is not working until 3PM (it was 6AM that time), they had time to kill. So they brought us to the beach. I took some really *cough* ARTISTIC pictures there. Lolz.

So Near, Yet So Far. =x

Can u read what it says? ;-) Drawn by Marie.

After the beach, we stopped by a local hot spring to dip our feet in. It was really hot, and Chin Ho challenged Ma-shi to see who can leave their feet in the hot spring for the longest time possible.

Left pic: The 4 "Apeks". *(Apek means old man in Malay)

Red Hot Legs.

After that crazy 12-hours outing, the three of us started packing our things. As I packed my things in the lab, I can already list out a few things I will miss in this place.

THE Couch. Usually occupied by Chin Ho or me when we became too tired to go back to our hostel.

THE Blackboard. Officially used to brief us on our tasks. After office hours though, it is the main place to draw and draw.

THE Kitchen. Everyone in the lab uses this place. Toaster for bread, microwave to heat up, hot flask for coffee. A necessity to start our mornings.

THE Workplace. What is work without your own desk? With our laptops for entertainment, Linux machines for work, and a small place where the food are located, it is a one stop location where you can never budge from if you are as hardworking as us.

THE Store. Need a quick drop of a can or bottle? This vending machine dispenses both hot and cold, cans and bottles, soft drinks and coffees and teas. You'll never need to shop out for a small thirst quencher. To top it off, a sink is located near it for ur washing necessities.

THE Toilet Bowl. I LOVE this place. My favourite thinking ground for breakthrough ideas. Armed with automatic flipping of seat covers, you no longer have to soil your hand to open that stinking thing to put your butt in. Juz make sure to keep moving yourself every 5 mins or so in the night, otherwise the sensor will automatically switch off the lights.

THE Library. The one place Chin Ho and Gabor sometimes went to bait some new "fishes". It was later abandoned when the exams period was over and no new "fishes" were seen swimming in.

THE Slippers. Wear 'em when you are internally travelling in the building. For your info, the blue fluffy one belongs to Sugimoto-san.

THE Ping Pong Room. Once a place of leisure, it was always occupied by us playing Ping Pong (or some other weird sport we made up) to distance ourselves from the stress of work.

THE Gym. Gabor frequented this place before playing Ping Pong. Helps him warm up.

THE View. No way can you get this kind of view in Singapore. Never.

All of us have more or less finished up packing. We will be boarding the bus at 12:20PM to Shonai Airport, before taking off at 1:30PM for Tokyo. It is not known if we can get internet access there, so for the time being, just hang in there for more news of our adventures in Tokyo when we touch down in Singapore. Until then, Sayonara.

We're leaving Tsuruoka today

2005-04-07T02:11:00.000+09:00

I don't know what to blog!

Trying not to be sad: we're only leaving Tsuruoka, not leaving our friends.

Maps

2005-04-05T14:52:00.000+09:00

Well, while somebody - I hope - is busy preparing the post about yesterday's 11.5 hour long dusk to dawn party, here I post a little riddle for Chinho, I think it will keep him busy for a day at least(pls dont miss the plane):

What's wrong with these maps?

Beginner

Intermediate

Expert

Btw the new girl on yesterday's party - Eriko - is also an expert on maps. Last week I showed her this map I took in the airplane travelling home and ask her whether she recognizes where it is.

Her guess was New Zealand. Kawaiine!
Too bad Chin doesnt have one more week to fall in love with her.

Happy April Fools' Day

2005-04-01T23:45:00.000+09:00

Happy April Fools' Day to everyone! If you are still wondering what she replied me regarding the previous post named "Confession" ( which I removed it from the blog already ), I just want to say there wasn't any confession made on this 1st April. It was just a joke. Peace out!

Over Before It Even Started? Maybe Not.

2005-03-30T23:59:00.000+09:00

Disclaimer: Before I start blogging, I would like to take this opportunity to assure everyone (including my parents and friends), that AT NO POINT OF TIME during the karaoke session, I went crazy crazy. I only went happy crazy (which I would categorize as an acceptable kind) when I was singing 'Cake - I Will Survive' (strutting my stuff until I realized Hinako just entered the room, then I stopped), 'Ricky Martin - Shake Your Bon-Bon' (Yeah well, as the title says it. Who can resist?!), 'Backstreet Boys - Shape of My Heart' with Yaomin and then got an 85/100 rating for it, and 'Smashmouth - I'm A Believer' (with Gabor shouting into the second mic as he was already drunk) and then got another 85/100 rating for it. So all in all, I am still a Mummy's boy. =D ROCK ON! \m/

It all started with Likai moving out. He's going back to China as he was offered a position there, so when he moves out, Satya will have to move out too. Both of them had been sharing a flat together, so now Satya will have to move in with Gabor. It was a bit fun helping him to move out. We looked like daylight burglars. And Likai's cat somehow knew his master will be gone, and it looked kind of sad.

Later that night, Satya realized he had not paid Likai almost 8 months of rent. You see, Likai rarely asked him for it as it was too much trouble. And the problem now is, he had no more cash in hand. But like a miracle coming down from the sky, he opened his drawer and took out a big bottle full of Japanese coins! Satya has this habit of NOT using coins to make purchases. The minimum amount he always use is a 1000 Yen note. And any coins he collected, he'd dumped it aside somewhere. And now, they have been revealed. Yaomin and I volunteered our services to count how much he has worth in coins. He needed another 60,000 Yen (S$960) to pay Likai. We set off organizing the coins and packing them into small rolls of packages. They looked like mini-bags of cash when closed up. Satya went back to his apartment to bring his SECOND bucket of coins.

Please note that the value on the bag is in Yen, so that's 10,000 Yen (S$160), 5,000 Yen (S$80) and 10 1,000 Yen (S$16) packs in coins.

This blue bag which I'm carrying here, is holding 50,000 Yen (S$800) in coins! Guess how heavy it is? Find out in the video in my link of movies.

After some hard work for an hour and a half, we reached a final count of 83,000 Yen (S$1328)! Well, laziness do pay sometimes, doesn't it? Maybe I'll try it myself back in Singapore. Using only notes to pay for my purchases, and throwing coins to one side. By the way, throughout the whole time, Chin Ho did nothing except taking away all the 5 Yen coins, and making it into one chain. I remembered he read somewhere in an article that 5 Yen coins bring the person luck, and he revealed he had collected 380 Yen worth of 5 Yen coins. That's like 76 coins! Maybe I should ask him to publish it on the blog.

The very next day, we had to continue to help move the garbage out of Likai's place. We were working like mad, mainly because there was a Karaoke session with Hinako, Ayako and Koshi in 4 hours time. We saved a bit of time throwing the bags down to the person below (as Likai's flat is on the second floor).

During this time, Chin Ho was getting pretty excited about the Karaoke, so to calm him down, Gabor got a toy globe from Likai's garbage, passed it to him, and asked him to find Madagascar.

Yes, he actually thinks Madagascar is around Russia!!!

It took him 20 minutes for that. ( -_-") I took less than 5 seconds (Thank you, Risk!)

Soon after, we were off to Karaoke. In the car (it is an MPV), Chin Ho got to sit in the back with Ayako. I could tell he was very excited and nervous.

With the windscreen fogged up, I took the opportunity to play a bit of 'Hangman' with Yaomin and Satya. I wrote the words 'check' and 'cinta' and '_ _ _ _ _' and asked them to choose a letter which they think is in the 5 letter word. It was fun for a while, until Chin Ho told Koshi to wind the window down, and Koshi, not knowing what we were doing, did what he was told. Half of the fog was gone, but the puzzle was still there, incomplete. It read 'A _ A K O'. Likai entered the car, and finished it off with a 'Y'. Ayako was very confused why the 4 guys in front of her were laughing like mad men.

It was surprising that Chin Ho, coming from Malaysia, doesn't know what 'cinta' means, wheareas Likai and Gabor, whom I can safely say, grew up and lived in a non-inter-racial society, knows the meaning in a snap.

Below are some pictures from the Karaoking session. I have some wonderful videos too, which is a MUST to check out! How often do you see Gabor drunk, and the rest of the gang dancing like there's no tomorrow? Lolz! Although there are no videos of me. Dang it. One of you HAVE to record me! I can't record myself singing, you know!

No, they're not lesbians. Just eating out of each other's mouth. Chin Ho and Koshi did it too. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough for a photo.

After that, Hinako went back home, Satya, Yaomin and me went back to the Center building to do our own stuffs, while Gabor, Likai, Chinho, Ayako and Koshi went to buy more beer for their so-called "second party". Although I don't really see any partying around. Only Gabor went back to his desktop to do his work, Likai packing his stuff as he'll be leaving for China in a few hours, Koshi talking with Yaomin through a Japanese translator software on his laptop, and Chin Ho and Ayako talking and giggling about things at a table diagonal to mine. I was not quite sure what happened after that, so you'll have to ask Chin Ho yourself. But wait. The story is not over yet.

The following day, news of Chin Ho confessing spread like wildfire. And whenever Chin Ho called Gabor to his laptop to translate something from Japanese, everyone in the lab (and I mean EVERYONE) buzzed to that one location like bees to honey. Yes, he is the hot topic at the moment. But at one time, he was faced with a problem. Ayako e-mailed to him in perfect Katagana (one of the 4 Japanese encodings). I'm not sure if it was Hiragana, or Katagana, or Kanji, all I know, it was in Japanese. And even Gabor had some problems translating it himself.

Gabor and Chin Ho didn't know if it was an e-mail typed out by Ayako, or whether it was an automated message generated by the phone network. Afraid he would make the same mistake as he did (which he mentioned in the previous post), Gabor called one of the Japanese guys from the lab just next door. And surprising, he was stunned too. And guess what he did? He called 3 of his other friends over to try and figure out what the message is about. I took a video of the whole commotion, and it was very long. I even had to change memory cards midway! The whole thing took about 16 mins, and I will try to upload the videos up in my link of videos as soon as possible. It is a bit of a problem as the huge filesize will cause a timeout halfway.
* Here are the clips taken by Hikaru:
Translation Team - Part 1
Translation Team - Part 2
* edited by Toshi-kun, brought to you by yaomin.info

The 'Tribal Council of Translation', specially put together for Chin Ho.

In a resulting phone call, Ayako sounded quite angry. I wasn't quite sure what really happened, and again, you will have to ask Chin Ho. I hope everything between them will be as smooth as silk.

Today started of as a normal day, but all of us are back to work mode. Well, ALMOST all of us. Chin Ho is still thinking of Ayako. Hinako e-mailed Yaomin, inviting all of us tomorrow to Kokusaimura (where the International Charity event was held) to see her sing gospel with her choir. At the same time, Gabor got an invitation from Rintaro-san (one of Keio staffs, I think) to a dinner at Hyakkenbori (near our hostel). Yaomin wanted to go for the choir, Chin Ho asked if Ayako will be there, but the choir starts the same time as the dinner, 7:30PM. So Gabor told Rintaro-san that us Singapore guys will only make it at 9:30PM, which will be the end of the choir practice.

Yaomin is now listening to gospel music (I think preparing for tomorrow). And somehow, the question of religion came up. It was passed around, with Satya answering, "Hinduism", it was Chin Ho's turn, and in a flash, he answered, "My religion is Ayako." I don't know what to say to this, so I'll just have no comments.

It will interesting to see what tomorrow will bring. Will it bring joy? Will it bring pain? For me, it will bring more headaches for the upcoming presentation.

Mata itsuka

2005-03-29T23:29:00.000+09:00

Today both of us got wiser. I mean both me and Chinho. But before I disclose the details let's take a look at developing story from the beginning.

Saturday night: Gotten drunk at Likai's offical farewell party Chinho writes a mail to Ayako: he wants her to watch movie together.

Sunday afternoon Ayako hasn't yet replied! Chinho is literally down. We are playing ping pong to reduce the tension in Chinho, he plays sitting on the ground. Can't stand up, he says, something went wrong. We analyze japanese society, I present my theory according to which many japanese guys are mistreating their girlfriends and that chases them into developing such strange and antisocial behavioral patterns (not replying to a kind email - I had such experience many times before)

Sunday night Ayako call Chinho on Likai's phone!!! She invites all of us for a karaoke party! Chinho is in heaven. Cannot talk, cannot think just sits in silence and stares at the screen.

Monday afternoon We are moving out the tremendous amount of garbage from Likai's house as he is leaving on Tuesday. (I hope somebody puts up an entry about this.) Tonight is gonna be Likai's last party in Japan.

Monday night: Karaoke party

We buy some booze at the shop because this karaoke bar allows us to bring food and drinks with us.

Heey, my girl, my girl!!

Chinchin, Ayako and Hinako. Actually I felt a little bit tense sitting next to Hinako, because I havent taken a shower for 3 days.;-) So didn't dare to take off my jacket until I got really drunk.:-)

Backstreet boys

Dancing queen

Born to be wild

The chinese duo singing Wo ai Beijing Tienanmen or something like this, can't understand Chinese...

YEAAH!!!
everybody goes crazy dancing, singing.

We are permanently bullying Chinho into making a confession to Ayako, but he only tells about his feeling to Hinako, who offers her help. Chinho seconds Hinako in a japanese song, but he cannot read the text fast enough, so he just repeats: nani, nani, nani, nani, nani, doko, doko, doko, doko, chinchin, chinchin, chinchin, chinchin, asoko, soko, soko, soko.
Shortly after midnight the party concludes.

Tuesday 1 am
After the party we went for nijikai ( second drinking ), meaning we bought some more booze in the convenience store and drank it in the Center building. Now Chinho had a chance to make his move on Ayako, because everyone else fell asleep including me, so this part of history remains forever the secret of Ayako and Chinho.

Chinho with a buta face waiting for Ayako before nijikai.

Tuesday 2 pm After waking up with a terrible hangover I find Chinho doing hard work ( Sleeping at his desk ). It soon turns out that Chinho made a half hearted confession to Ayako the night before. He couldnt actually tell her face to face, so he sent an email, which Ayako only checked after she left. And Ayako has replied!!!
Here is the transcript of the change of mails:
Chinho: Aishitteru =)
Ayako: removed becoz of fuggin freewill

Which I translated as
Chinho: I love you =)
Ayako: removed becoz of fuggin freewill

So we started persuading Chinho to write her an email to try to meet earlier or visit her at the shop where she works. But Chinho said his sixth sense told him, that something was wrong and didn't believe in my translation and remained passive.

Tuesday 5:30 pm
So we went to Endo san's house to do the usual dig job. Chinho copied Ayako's message on a paper and showed it to Endo san, who burst into laugh as soon as he read it. According to Endo san, the mail literally meant:
Really!!! Thank you! It would be good to meet you again some time!!!

So this was a polite turning down message, she actually likes him, but not fallen in love (yet)!

SHIT!!!! Itsuka has two meanings!!! I didn't know!!! Fifth day of the month and some time.
Ohhh, what a poor japanese translator I am ! :-)))

Continuation from Gabor's Manga

2005-03-28T06:20:00.000+09:00

The farewell party was great. If you wanna see my pics, you can go over to my blog at http://nurazhar.blogspot.com. Below are some "manga-related" pics.

Why Chin Ho Is An International Playboy:
From Friday's party:

From Saturday's party:

Chin Ho asking for tips (on how to court girls) from Reina-san, with Likai looking over.

Gabor can't stop telling and showing everyone at Keio University the picture of the girl Chin Ho is after.

Chin Ho and Reina-san agreeing not to speak of the meeting to anyone, with Likai as witness.

The playboy at his musical best.

The playboy being escorted away by his chaffeur after his wee hours Karaoke-ing.

In less than 12 hours time, we will be going for another Karaoking session, this time with Hinako, Ayako, and Koshi. Will get updates on that one!

Likai's cat is really cute, isn't he?

2005-03-25T20:26:00.000+09:00

Too bad, he is gonna have noone to take care of him, as Likai is leaving Japan.

Manga

2005-03-23T23:50:00.000+09:00

- C'mon guys, let's have a party!!!

ZZZZ....

myam, myam... oh, grace ...

Where are you??? We are READY TO PARTY!!!!

Shit! I have been playing all night...

I am working hard...

These lazy bumfucks are really disappointing!

OK, guys, if you are not interested, I am taking this nice lady...

...for a seaside romance

THE END

Heey! I'm alone!
Grace!

Oh you see

2005-03-23T04:47:00.000+09:00

I
realised
that
the
obscene
post
has
been
staying
up
on
the
top
list
of
the
blog
for
too
long.

And hence, I had to do smth! to blow it off. And thats wad I am doing now`
Done! :) Ciao
p.s:I may post up again soon, I'll see..

I know what you did last Monday

2005-03-16T20:51:00.000+09:00

Chinho, isn't there something to write about Tuesday morning, something other than your basketball procurement?
Let me help you remember:

"You look 23. You have a nice ass."

"I saw only 5 pretty girls in Japan... You are one of them ..."

... and she stood there defying the blistering cold taking a last yearnful look at Chinho.

Grace, don't cry. Look, there are at least 2.000.000 males in Singapore. There must be some very nice boys around you. Don't waste your feelings on a smooth heartbreaker like Chinho.

Ive decided to write something

2005-03-15T08:00:00.000+09:00

It has been awhile since someone wrote here. Not wanting this dear blog go deprecated, I had decided to write something; like what was going on lately.

Basically, it was like money spending recently... not much I would say, but a little more than usual. Where was the money spent on?
Hmm .... alot of stuffs, stuffs I personally think worth it' like we eat out more often at Kurumaya ramen shop(for the sake that we're leaving soon. I will definetely miss the kirei obasan), picked up basketball in japan and with it we had to play indoor which requires some 210yen for 2hrs loan(but thats not the point, its the fun .. though I had cramps as usual) and we had parties too absolutely fabulous gathering which makes us new friends, is definetely what everyone didn't want to miss(It was drink, eat, talk, fun! Hmm... yeay` lost in translation for the couple of us yea and I will never be active enough in the beginning of every party, its when alcohol catalyses my brain .. somehow I had more stuffs to say and could recall more japanese words! sometimes I could understand the japanese conversation, but just couldn't create a reply, and then I will start to blabber my version of mized japanese and english, when I hope e opposite could get me =)).

Okay, now what .. Basketball came to my mind now yes. All great thanks to Likai, I was able to play basketball in japan; he intro-ed us the indoor stadium -i forgot the name and then translated all the plays we had. Really a great guy` He's leaving Tsuruoka soon though, at end this March` Kinda sad yes .. but 'meet' and 'part' is life, just glad paths were crossed and friends made. Also on a side note, the guy who taught me how to play ping pong here, is Likai too!
Okay, anyway .. back to basketball' Im actually quite content about it recently ...why? Because I bought a new ball!!! Its molten's new ball GL7 Giugardo series I think .... sounds cool, but I dunno what it means. Something to boast about! >) Made out of true leather, new grip technology and molten's self proclaimed special rubber. Whoa! are you impressed? And hopefully, if the guy was not fuggin lying .. this Giugardo GL7 would be used for the World cup Basketball. Now, are you impressed!? I am! but then most important point is I got this fabulous basketball 'cheap', because Molten originated from Japan and the ball was made in japan ... so screw all the import fees and profit making, I bought the ball at OP(Original Price).
Well, Im just contented with the superior ball... my skill still suck'

Check out the ball at http://www.molten-gl7.com/english
If you want to see 'my' ball, maybe you could check out my msn display pic` I could set it soon.

C'ya peace

photos on birthday party

2005-03-09T22:36:00.000+09:00

The party of Yaomin and Hinako was good. Here are some photos.

the pissing xiaoxin

2005-03-04T00:26:00.001+09:00

This was found at Bando-san's Chinese tea shop on charity event. Bando-san is Akiko's and my friend. Bando-san said it was made in China and bought in Taiwan. Xiaoxin is a famous character of Japanese cartoon. His Japanese name is Shinchan.

Let's get back to good old Chinho bashing

2005-03-03T14:20:00.000+09:00

Ok, let's see some pictures of the everyday life of "Chinho The Conqueror" (LOL):
Chinho is a very serious guy. When he doesnt eat, sleep or play computer games or ping/pong or watch DVD, he does things like:

Cav. Lt. Lame Chin Ho paradeing on his stallion in the office

??? ( Any ideas about what he's doing? )

Browsing malaysian gay websites

P.S.:
I am hugely disappointed with the performance of this website!
When I enter keywords like "Japan" or "Tsuruoka" or "Chinho" or any of our names in Google, this blog is not appearing on the hit list!
Solution:
Everybody should write an entry a day from today on!
Ganbatte kudasai!

More respect pls

2005-03-03T01:35:00.000+09:00

Chinho, chinho, before you stun everybody in Spore by flashing with 8 girls a week, you could have mentioned your master on whose shoulders you are standing.
Or else I might not introduce you to more girls... LOL

Uploading the picture is like taking forever ...

2005-03-02T00:22:00.000+09:00

anyway, thats not important now, because I'm only showing the pictures later when you scroll down so it could buy me some time while I think what I can write here.

Ok ... now I has always been fickle-minded about what I want to write, no theme can settle in my head. Just consulted Gabor, and he made me realised I hasn't yet introduced the few girls I got to know, to the 'world'.
Well, yes .... the few girls I got to know here; Saeka Tani, Mihou Sato, Rui, Noriko, Yuki, Victoria and Hinako Sato. 7 of them! sadly I do not possess the photo of all.

Hello! My face comes first, before the girls'

Hello! My face comes first, before the girls'

(1) Saeka Tani

- Likai(looking erm .. *cough*horny? LOL) and Saeka

Saeka, first girl I get to know here, I reckon she is different and totally cool; it was the first conversation, she mentioned "I was totally fucked up" when she was trying to describe how drunk she was the night before, I was totally "Woahhh, not bad eh" =) Saeka appears to have the traits of being strong, clever and true.

(2) Mihou Satou

-- Check Mihou-san out at Azhar's blogspot

Having a few conversation with her, I find Mihou-san a very pleasant lady.
In one of the conversation, I took the initiative to ask her a really casual question "How old are you?" Apparently gabor told me it was a very bold question I had asked. WHY? :?
HERE, I must declare that Mihou-san looks very young, like in youthful 20s and still in beauty. Well, to the answer she did not announce, 'naisho desu' she replied. ah, too bad`

(3) Rui

-- Rui's photo on Gabor's blog

Nothing much is known to me about Rui. Only the fact that she alone is stronger than me and yaomin altogether. LOL!

(4) Noriko

- Me and Noriko readied to be shot

Noriko, the kawaii young-lady-boss of a sushi bar. The sushi bar I had visited only once. I don't know much about Noriko yet, but she appears to be soft-spoken, and really cute. =)

(5) Yuki

-- I don't have Yuki's picture

It was when I was at the charity event, Yuki was there. Apparently, I did not notice her .. then Yaomin came along to announced her presence at position '3 o'clock'.
He told me Yuki resembles 'Shuzhen' and that he was really shocked when he thought he had spotted Shuzhen in Tsuruoka Japan!
Thereafter I told Gabor of Yuki and Gabor initiated the approach to her, I tagged. I did not speak to Yuki, just smiled as she couldn't understand english.

(5) Hinako Sato

- Hinako caught in action

Hinako, an adept pianist. I got to know her also from the Charity event, she was playing the piano for a performance then. On that occasion she caught the eyes of us all(Nic, Yaomin, Azhar and me). oops .. LOL
She appears to be very fine, always wearing the nice smile on her face.

(6) Victoria

- Victoria, Gabor and Nic posing

Also from the Charity event, I spoke to Victoria only at minimal. she appears to be in mid 20s and looking good!

Peace

Mistakes after mistakes... chinho chinho...

2005-02-28T18:15:00.000+09:00

Early in the morning, it was sunny and there was a smooth breeze. What could be worst than today's wonderful morning? The answer is... CHINHO! (Not his mistakes). However, before I go into the main topic, let's side-track a bit and go into the weather in the afternoon for today. It was a blizzard outside and I came back from the supermarket and was caught in it. Got back with a wet jeans and also partly covered with melted snow.

I went into the lab and settled the stuffs I have bought and then I have decided to send an email message to the friend that we met yesterday at the Charity Event in Kokusaimura. Chinho wasn't really wanting to send the email, so I did it.

After sending and waited for 1 min and my Outlook Express sounded "You Got Mail". I was wondering "That was a fast reply!" I saw the message below:

次のあて先へのメッセージはエラーのため送信できませんでした。

送信先メールアドレスが見つかりませんでした。
メールアドレスをご確認の上、再送信してください。

The user(s) account is disabled.

<*******@ezweb.ne.jp>: user unknown

It writes clearly down there, "USER UNKNOWN". Is it a wrong email address that Chinho got? NO! He thought it was an underscore for the email address which turn out to be a dash. E.g. yao-min@ezweb.ne.jp, but he thought it was yao_min@ezweb.ne.jp
It was lucky that Gabor has the address and finally the messsage was sent out.

After about 3 hrs later, the email reply came and to my horror, the name was spelt wrongly! I have double-check with what Chinho had send to all of us the email address and name, but it still don't tally with what is written on the paper. Chinho really need to rewrite his string module integrated into his brain. He mistook - with _ and his indexing of characters are totally screwed up! If you use his string module, you might get his email address to be jas-lim@hotmail.com and his name spelt as "Cnihho". Chinho Chinho... How many mistakes could you make a day? Giving me the wrong email address and wrong name!!! Man! Would it get even worst for the next 40 days? I think I should end this entry in this manner:

...to be continued

2005-02-26T12:07:00.000+09:00

Yeah, you definitely get me excited today morning when I discovered you put my sliced ham into the deep fridge. So much for the breakfast.

This is too 'exciting'

2005-02-26T03:13:00.000+09:00

- left blank

Title: "take a look at my body"

2005-02-25T00:45:00.000+09:00

Hi guys` it has been so damn long since I last wrote a fair post.
But well .. this day, now, before I go and bath and ... shit too. I think its time for me to clear my name, which I think is already stinking like some cow dung.

Futatsu Onnanoko wa Kinyoobi(Which hopefully(without my mistake) means 'The 2 girls of Friday'). I don't think I should focus on how 'un-man' I was on senshu no kinyoobi, instead lets discuss why.
The fact is, I was startled and totally unprepared for the situation... you see, it was SOOOOO off the mark, the normal mark of my normal life ... SUDDENLY, there were some kawaii onnokos, doing i-dunno-what, loitering i-dunno-why-yet and then waving, at who?me?us? Come on! It was so UN-normal that I didn't know how I should react(espacially with my limited japanese vocabulary, which I think the words I recognise are less than 10!! My fingers!!)
Oh, and I did my best you see .. from my tightly cramped brain then, squeezed out the word 'Hi'(in jap) and responded to the girls' friendly behaviour, in my friendly manner (OK and i think i sounded lil nervous then) .... and then .. what? what do you expect?? of course I cycle and go eat already! which is according to the plan.

But, of course now Im prepared... felt at waste too` LOL bwahaha
:?

Japanese tuna

2005-02-23T20:24:00.000+09:00

Chinho went to Fusha (supermarket) today, so I gave him 300 yen to buy me a can of tuna. I told him that tuna is "maguro" in Japanese which is totally different from "Mackarel". I also wanted to show him the kanji of Tuna, but Chinho rejected saying of course he knows the kanji of tuna. So he went to shop, returned and pulled this out from the bag:

Sardines!!!!
He said he thougth tuna and sardines are the same! Yes, of course they are the same. Fish-fish.
Chinho: But I think they taste the same.
Me:No, Chinho, tuna is sour and sardine is sweet.
Chinho: No, sardine is sour, too!
Me:Ok, taste it.
Chinho took a bit of the sardine, tasted it and said:
Hmmm, Japanese tuna is sweet!

ok...

2005-02-20T01:05:00.000+09:00

its my fault =(

The Day of Sins, Sins, and More Sins.

2005-02-18T22:02:00.000+09:00

Sin after sin was made today by Yaomin and Chin Ho. Even Yaomin admitted it himself. Let's track back and see what exactly happened just now.

(NOTE: At the time of writing, Yaomin and Chin Ho would have already blog, showing how anxious they were to prove that they had not actually sinned. This is totally not true, as a sin, IS a sin. Gabor and I can testify.)

It's Friday night. What do we do on Friday night? Cycle to Ramen for dinner, borrow DVDs from Tsutaya, and watch them until 4AM in the morning. At roughly 5PM, Gabor put us in perspective of our plan. "Do we have enough bikes?" I asked. A little count, and we were short of one. So Gabor took the liberty to rush down to the Admin counter and get a bicycle key from Wada-san, one of the people working there. At 5:40PM sharp, we went to the bicycle lot, and unlocked our bikes. Yaomin took the key borrowed from the Admin counter, but when he looked around, he couldn't find his bike. Chin Ho went to check if the bicycle was at T1 (he actually volunteered for this) and I called out Wada-san to try and rectify the situation.

He himself was quite surprised as he didn't know where the bike was. During this time, there were 2 schoolgirls (approx 15 years old) loitering near us. They were restless, and occasionally giggling. I thought to myself that this would be the time Chin Ho would relish. If I'm not mistaken, before Chin Ho came back from his recon, the 2 girls asked Wada-san if they could borrow bikes. I think they wanted to follow us. When Chin Ho came back, surprisingly, he didn't make his move on the 2 girls. We left the place anyway, Yaomin still without a bike.

We stopped by outside our hostel to check if any of the bike locks would open to the key given to us. Unfortunately, none did. Yaomin and I checked the bicycle lot 2 hostels down the road. We found one bike which looked like an office bike, and tried to unlock it. But lo behold! NO LOCK! Yaomin became excited and tried it out. Just needed a pump in the tyres. He said he'll be borrowing it for a while. Not my business.

At Ramen during our dinner, Chin Ho's man-ness was questioned. Why didn't he talk to the girls? Why didn't he asked them along for dinner? Why didn't he request for a picture? Gabor told him that they were no ordinary girls, as Tsuruoka girls are usually shy. But he thinks it's because we were foreigners that they were excited. I went, "They weren't ordinary? You mean, they are transvestites?" Chin Ho asked me what transvestite is. I told him in this case, it would mean the girls are like she-males. And Chin Ho was like, "Oh, I think they are he-males..." (There you go Oxford Dictionary! A new word to add in your next edition!)

On the way back, Yaomin dropped by the bicycle lot where he picked the unlocked bike. He quickly tried to park it back in place. I was on the other side of the lake, and I could clearly see him with his light blue jacket in the dark, acting very suspiciously around there. When he was done, he ran as if his life depended on it. Lolz...

All in all, it will and shall be known that Yaomin and Chin Ho did after all, commit sins. And the only person who came out clean from this situation is none other than...

Me. =)

I would rather say "Flee in panic"

2005-02-18T22:01:00.000+09:00

Well, it was like the first battles of the American Independence War. The rebels always fled when they saw the british troops lining up against them without a shot being fired. It was like how Chinho handled today's window of opportunity.
The battlefield was the bycicle lot at the bottom of the school. Two local schoolgirls were waiting 4 meters from us while we were trying to find the bycicle belonging to one of our keys. The girls were quite pretty, around 15-16 and quite excited when they saw the horde of "gaijins" near them. They were giggling loudly all the time and whispering among each other. Chinho arrived last and immediatelly asked why are the "onnanoko" there. I suggested him to interview them with the phrases he learned from me today ( "Koibitou ha imasenka?" = "Do you have a boyfriend?" ) or any other useful phrases, but he instead said: I go and check out the other bycicle lot for the bycicle. Well, what a coward route! There were four other boys who could have done this instead of him, but he volunteered, when nobody asked him!
Then he returned, but the girls were still there. We were about to move and the girls were waving at us. I told Chinho they are waving at us and he is supposed to do something. So Chinho turned towards them, said "Konnichiwa" in a nervous tone then turned away and shot away as if he was riding the stolen bycicle, not Yaomin.
When we returned from dinner, the girls were gone. Chinho could only find a supermarket bag at their place and he held the bag for long with him.
Well, what an opportunity missed! You have to know most of Tsuruoka girls are like zombies. They are afraid of foreigners, walk with bowed head watching nowhere and try to avoid any way of contact.
But dont worry Chinho, the americans gathered their courage and finally won the Independence War. It took them only 7 years. :-)

PS: Invitation for dinner="Gohan isho ni tabemasen ka?"

Shy is an awful word, Disciplined is the right word

2005-02-18T21:49:00.000+09:00

They waved and I said "Konnichiwa". Aint I good? LOL

Sorry, but I disappoint all my friends in Singapore I think. But, its a good lesson I learned.

OK, next time ...."Gohan ishoo wa ikimasu ka"

Happening Day

2005-02-18T21:47:00.000+09:00

The usual day with my laptop acting as an alarm clock and woke me up. Next thing was my Outlook Express which sounded the "You got mail!". I look at Outlook Express and I saw a letter from my dad which included an attachment of a Further Reporting Order from MINDEF. Initially I thought it was a letter telling me when to report for my National Service, but after I opened the attachment and took a look inside. To my surprise, it was a letter for me to take an IT assessment test for my vocational assignment on the 14th Mar 2005! Of all things that could happen on a start of a day.

Frustration was all shown on my face, the worst thing is, it is a 3 HOURS test (written). I couldn't believe it if I will have to fly back for just a 3 HOURS test and leave half way while I am having my Internship in Tsuruoka. After cooling down and thought through, I have decided to call up CMPB and notify them that I am unable to turn up for the test.

When I called them up, they were like expecting my call. I said I was calling from Japan and that I received the letter to ask me to turn up for the test and I couldn't go for the test. The person over the other end of the phone told me to fax over necessary information and ask me to state the reason that I am having an attachment overseas. It was like he knows I am having attachment overseas and never did he question me why I could not go for the test. However, I ask to email to them the necessary information and that settles the problem over back in Singapore.

So the day went on with the uncertainty feeling whether I need to turn up for the test, because they have not reply me the email which I sent them. Then finally night came and as usual we pay a visit to the Ramen shop which we usually go to every friday. Now here comes the problem, we don't have enough bicycles. Therefore Gabor went down to the office and got a key from Wada-san.

So I took the key and went to find the office bicycle, but no bicycles' lock fit that key. The most astonishing thing is, we thought that one of Li Kai's bicycles might fit the key, and BINGO! BOTH the bicycles fit the key! Wow! Li Kai's bicycle locks are useless with the "ULTIMATE" bicycle office key, anyone in the office could take his bicycles. However, both bicycles are taken by Azhar and Chinho, so I have to find the bicycle which the office key can fit. Instead of searching for bicycles, Chin ho "searched" ( not police search, I meant he met ) 2 young girls near the bicycle parking area at the center building. They were about 15 years old and Chin ho is too shy to ask them out to join us for dinner. Hahaha.

We went to the T building area and tried on every bicycle we saw at the bicycle shed, but all of them could not fit that key. So I went on to try on other bicycles then I saw a black bicycle (Wada-san claim that the office bicycle is in black) and I wanted to try the key on but found out that there was NO LOCK! I searched thoroughly again to check if it is no lock at all and really it was a bicycle without a lock on. So hey, when you need something that badly, just "borrow" it for awhile. So I "borrowed" it to get to the ramen shop.

When I reached the ramen shop, Gabor asked me this question, "Did you lock your bicycle?" and I said "Do I need to lock?" (DUH!). So we ate, went to Tsutaya and went back to the center building.

I returned the bicycle and it was lucky that police did not came after me because the bicycle was a serialed one! What a "memorable" day in Tsuruoka! I could be arrested for not complying to a Government Order back in Singapore, "borrowed" a bicycle and could have been arrested by the Tsuruoka police for having a bicycle which is not mine.

The two daughters of Endou san

2005-02-16T15:11:00.000+09:00

About two weeks ago on Tuesday Chninho was even more uncontrollable and diffuse than usual. He spent the whole afternoon shopping and seemed like totally ignorant about the fact the he skipped a whole day without work. About 4 pm he turned to me and said:
- I want to celebrate today!
- Why, Chinho?
- Yesterday was my payday I want to celebrate!
- Ok Chniho, we dont usually celebrate on weekdays, but if you are willing to work hard, we may eat and drink a few beers.
- Ok, I will work hard. - and he pointed to the screen
- No, I mean real work, physical work and you have to work hard!
Chinho thought a little bit thend nodded. Of course he would have done anything to get away from work!
So we went to Endou san(53), who is a local guy running a beauty saloon with his wife. He has a chamber called "ion house", which has an about 3 meter diameter hole filled with sawdust. The sawdust is mixed with rice powder and enzyme, so the enzyme generates heat from the rice.The people lie in the hot and wet sawdust and sweat a lot and lose weight and get healthier. It is like a sauna. The sawdust has to be digged up and the enzyme and rice powder replenished every week. I help the guy with the digging, which is good for my health and then we eat and drink a lot which is fun. So I decided to bring Chinho there to help us and then eat and drink with us.
Not that he was much of a help. He was about that effective digging the sawdust with the shovel as one would be with a chopstick. But Endou san is a nice guy and likes foreigners so Chinho got the same food and drinks afterwards.Endou san hardly speaks English but his English is still surpassing Chinho's japanese. There was a funny conversation between them:
Endou san: Chinho, chinho, what country?
Chinho: Malaysia.
E: You Malay?
C: No I am chinese.
E: Your mother and father chinese?
C: Yes
E: Brother? ( he wanted to ask "do you have a brother?")
C: He is chinese too.
One week ago Chinho and Yaomin were replacing me in the dig job, because I had to go to Tokyo. The job took them 3 about 2 and half hours whereas me and Endou san can do it in 1.5 hours normally.
Endou san has 3 daughters. But one of his daughters has already married and lives far away. So there are only 2 daughters in his house.
If there is nobody to help Endou san, his daughters help him. Yesterday I saw Rui working and talked with Endou san about the kids performance. According to Endou san, Mai (13)

is stronger than either Chinho or Yaomin
and Rui(22)

is stronger than Chinho and Yaomin together.
LOL
(To prevent any ill-informed speculation, Rui has a serious boyfriend, sorry Chinho)

Today I was funny

2005-02-12T02:16:00.000+09:00

Today as it is Friday we drank some beers. Me four, Likai and Chinho 1-1. Before going to bed, Chinho looked at me and told that I looked drunk and I was funny. So I had a little quiz with Chinho ( M=Me, C=Chinho)
M: What is the perimeter of the circle?
C: 4pi square r, ehhh 2pi r cube
M: what is the speed of light?
C: I dont know
M: What is the nearest star to us?
C: Venus
M: when did the last ice age ended?
C: 2000 years ago
M: What is the melting point of iron?
C: 200 degree Celsius
M: When did the Mongols invade China?
C: Djingis khan? about 1975.
M: That was the year I was born.
C: Ok, then 1952
M: Have you ever heard about the Korean war? When was it?
C: I saw some movies, 1995, ehh, I dont know, I was a child then (!)
M: When was the second world war?
C: Around 1959
M: When was the first man on moon?
C: it was the Americans in 1931
M: and the first man in space?
C: it was Armstrong ..., I am not good in history, but I learned geography
M: What is the capital of Australia?
C: Sydney
M: Where are the Midway Islands?
C: I dont know
( yesterday: M: Reina san went back to Kyushu C: Where is it? M: Chinho, do you know the name of the island we are on now? C: I dont know M: which are the four main islands of Japan? C: I dont know )

UPDATE!!!

2005-02-12T01:42:00.000+09:00

while i got no inspiration yet, i will write when it cums.

Al Coronado

2005-02-07T03:27:00.000+09:00

Azhar, al coronado was the name of that crazy show' I think everyone in the room didn't like it, but maybe only Likai is enjoying it. lol

Now and then

2005-02-04T16:29:00.000+09:00

Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi

2005-02-03T22:20:00.000+09:00

This is another classic from me to you guys, remembering yesterday, when you collected the bycicles from all senior students including a would be faculty member of Shanghai University and disappeared for 4 hours (in working time) for "shopping".
***
I am really getting worried about Chinho's mental health.
He has just downloaded and inserted a picture of a bunch of people who are totally unrelated to anyone of us.
Men, he is going insane. Maybe the weather, the lack of girls, lack of alcohol pushed him to the limit.
I am afraid Chinho's parents will sue us becuase their beloved son will have lost all remaining sanity by the time he gots back to Johore City. And those people on the picture will also sue us becuase we used their picture without permission! And the girls in the library!!!

Classic

2005-02-03T21:47:00.000+09:00

Quote:

No word about the most important things in life ( at least of the age of 20 ): sex and alcohol! -Gabor

sex and alcohol are the most important stuffs in life? .....maybe to all male-kinds. But thats a classic to you from Gabor, at least he thinks so. Hell yeah?

[picture removed on request or maybe i will post another one] :)

Code Red. Alert: We Have A Code Red

2005-02-02T13:05:00.000+09:00

Close to 24 hours after remarking my disappearance, Gabor himself has left no trace of where he might be. A quick check in the toilets is in vain, he was not stuck in any of them. Let me try to recall what happened the last time I saw him alive.

Yesterday night, Shafi-san had a party in his apartment, just above Chin Ho's and Yaomin's. During the party, Yaomin and I went to Tsutaya to borrow some DVDs to watch. And we met Gabor after the party. Then we walked to the center lab, and when we were about to watch the movie, he said he was sleepy. Sleepy? Gabor SLEEPY? Someone must have spiked his drink at the party.

That was the last we saw if him. Gabor, Gabor, Gabor. If you wanna disappear, the least you could do was to leave your bicycle keys on your table. I mean, since you are nowhere in sight, why would you need your bicycle right? And with it, we can look for you around Tsuruoka. For all we know, you could be wandering on the streets like a zombie after your drink was spiked.

This is bad. Better activate Chin Ho and Yaomin, and get a search party ready. We NEED his bicycle.

Erm... I mean, we NEED Gabor.

Azhar in danger?

2005-02-01T13:55:00.000+09:00

We have got no news from Azhar since this morning. The snow situation is critical, I am really worried. It is 2 pm and Azhar is nowhere.
Something bad might have happened on his long way from home to this outpost of duty.
Maybe he got lost in the deep snow? Or missed his way and got onto thin ice on the Big Lakes and Rivers of Tsuruoka?
Or he got kidnapped by the gangs of Tsuruoka? Or found himself in the middle of a hit and run supermarket robbery?
I am really worried. Maybe we should send out a helicopter?

Lets have a no-bs assessment

2005-01-31T21:22:00.000+09:00

Ok, that's enough of bullshitting!
You keep on writting about ping-pong, food and snow - who cares about this?
No word about the most important things in life ( at least of the age of 20 ): sex and alcohol!
And that is no wonder, since they have not much access to either of it. :-)
But they keep on trying!
Chinho and Yaomin have a daily routine of going down to the library with a camera in hand trying to make secret photos of short-skirted Japanese schoolgirls and possible have a chat with them and possible snap up a girlfriend.
Chinho has already learned the most important phrases: can I take a picture? can you give me my phone number?
BTW they call that kind of activity (girlhunting) "research".
to be continued....

oh

2005-01-31T14:51:00.000+09:00

Oh
OH
OH!!

Cold Crazy Cyclists In Town

2005-01-26T01:34:00.000+09:00

Oh yeah. We have been cycling. And it was crazy, cycling on the roads, pavements... And who else crazy enough to lead such a pack other than Takatoshi-san himself, a.k.a. London-trained, Yaomin. Talking about London-trained... Iwakami-san! Where is the ping pong match between me and Ronnie??? Lolz...

We got our pay on Monday... The Monday blues just disappeared when 50,000 yen ($800) went into our pockets. Not much, but enough. Iwakami-san wanted to celebrate, but we were not up to it. Then today, he had a chance to celebrate with Gabor, and he took it. End up doing some hard work (Lolz!) and came back super tired. In fact, today was the first time he requested to go back at 10PM.

And yes, I agree Takatoshi-san is some cook, and if I were half as good as he is, I'll go get married and be a house-husband immediately! Below are some pics of my lunches and the big feast we had on Monday night.

Top => The big feast consisting of Japanese rice, fried chicken, scrambled eggs, salad, microwaved potato slices and of course, SALMON!
Left => One of my lunches last week, rice with boiled chicken and mixed vegs, and chicken soup.
Right => My lunch just now, prawn noodles.
The 3 of us have had our individual breakthroughs. Oh, even Gabor has his breakthrough, except that it wasn't in the field of Bioinformatics. He managed to beat me in ping pong after playing with me 3 matches on Monday. I won the first 2 matches, 2 sets to 1, but somehow, I lost the last match 1 set to 2. He was so estatic, you should have seen his face. Oh well, I hand it to you, Gabor, but next time, I won't be so forgiving. Lolz.

Now armed with our Library stickers on our security cards, we can go to the Library anytime. Me and Takatoshi-san will be going there to borrow books, but Iwakami-san will be going there to do his "research". In fact, the first time we went there on Monday, he was already so engrossed in it, he didn't hear me calling out to him that he needed to tap in! Unfortunately, he forgot his card that day, so he missed out on the first day of fun. Don't worry, there will be other days. Ha ha...

Guess I better sleep now. Gotta prepare myself to start another journey for another breakthrough.

And another. And another. And another...

2 Weeks' Update

2005-01-23T13:27:00.000+09:00

After 2 weeks in Japan, it's time to do a proper update on the trip from Singapore to Japan by me.

At Changi Airport, my family and friends came to send me off:

My Family

My Friends

And here is the 3 "Musketeers" (Chinho,Azhar,Me from the left) with their Liaison Officer (Ronnie, on the left)!

As we say farewell to our family members and friends, it's time to go into the airport thru the customs. This is inside the airport:

While on the plane, most of the air stewardess are Japanese, because we took All Nippon Airways(ANA). I still think SIA services are better compared to ANA.

When we reached Narita Airport, we took a Limosine Bus to Haneda Airport to catch our domestic flight. This is some snapshots of Haneda Airport:

When we reached Shonai Airport, Akiko-san was there to pick us up and we went to our Guest-House to put our lugguages, thereafter we went to our office. Here is how my office and surroundings look like:

Ronnie went to meet up with the key person for our Internship Program in Tokyo on that week's Friday, and we were left in Tsuruoka for another 11 more weeks. On that very week Saturday, Li Kai a friend of Dr Ng has brought us to an old friend to have a small party. We got to meet this old man by the name of Kanzi (Chinho has more information about this, he has his namecard). Li Kai is from Jiang Xi, China if I have not mistaken (poor memories in winter, hahaha). He is very nice to us and also Gabor, our supervisor for ITP, brought us to a nice small restaurant in Tsuruoka to taste some nice ramen.

That night which Gabor brought us to the restaurant, it was snowing, but hey, when you are hungry, you won't care about the coldness, hahaha. So we walked with Gabor and Li Kai to the restaurant and have our dinner.

I think that's all for these 2 weeks. More updates will be done if I have the time.

Here's one juice which is very interesting:

An orange mikan(mandarin orange) juice. If anyone can find me a blue mikan, please tell me. Hahaha.

Title: "take a look at my body"

2005-01-23T01:36:00.000+09:00

The other day, I was saying I would show you people what I was really working on.
But then, it seems so that I was to change the shapes I designed to other stuffs, so the shapes I was planning to photo shoot is no longer there. Although its still possible if I really want to take it, but that would be too much hassle ... So, I think I will just forget about it for the time being, as long as I know ITS NICE.

OH and last sunday, there was a festival about fish(I cant remember the name). Me, Yaomin and Azhar went for a walk along that long street(Ginza Dori) where that festival was held.
Azhar took some photos(Uploaded on previous post) and Yaomin too, caught pictures, not much of the crowds and stuffs though he shot, I think his camera lens are much more 'homing' to the girls walking around; and if you want pretty stocks, you can ask him! LOLL

Well, not being fake, IAM the more NEUTRAL ONE. I shoot everything! The crowd... the stalls... the parade... and the girls :)
ARHEM' not like I really wanted to shoot the girls but I got prominent orders from from way back south. I dont wanna get prosecuted when I get back.

Lunchbox

2005-01-21T10:33:00.000+09:00

Ohayo! For today's program, we are going to show you how to prepare quite a decent lunchbox:

First, boil a pot of water. When the water is boiling, put in your noodles. Cook the noodles at boiling temperature for about 5 minutes and bring down the fire to cook it for another 5 minutes. When it is done, pour away the water and wash the noodles with some cold water.

When cooking the noodles, you could wash the vegetables and dice the carrot to small pieces. Next for the soup, you will need about 200ml water, which is the 1/4 or 1/5 level of your pot filled with water.

Starting boiling the water again and after it is boiled, put in the carrots (because it is a bit longer than the vegetables to cook) followed by the vegetables. Add in some oil and light soya sauce. Boil for about 5 minutes and you have your vegetables soup.

Finally, microwave the meat and you have your meat ready.

And TADA! You have this:

Thanks for tuning to the "Lousy Cook in Tsuruoka" proudly brought to you by Yaomin-kun aka Takatoshi-kun

Oh

2005-01-21T02:48:00.000+09:00

Oh
OH
OH!!

It is Snowing! AGAIN!

2005-01-21T02:25:00.000+09:00

After 4 days of absence, the snow has fallen upon Tsuruoka again. Except that it didn't really fall as snow. Something like hail, except that these are smaller pieces of ice. To give you a clearer picture, you can download the movie (1 min long) in my links of movies (at the toolbar on the right). In the video, you can see and hear the small pieces of ice tapping against the window. Very different from rain. Below are some pictures too. You can no longer see the mountain in the landscape picture as it was very foggy.

We went to a fish festival last Sunday. It was very crowded, but we didn't buy anything. Though we did take some pictures. Iwakami-san and Takatoshi-san has more pictures, but not sure if they are gonna post them up. (Lolz!)

Iwakami-san had to draw pictures of biological objects for the molecular editor. You know, amino acids, proteins, ribosomes, etc. The thing is, in order to draw the object, he has to specify the coordinates in the Python script. So there he was, doing trial and error, and after some hard work (really hard work! actually stayed overnight to do it...), this was what he drew for a protein!

Guess what? Gabor actually thought it looked like an... an... a BUTT! LOLZ! Actually I thought of it that way too... Lolz... The best part is, coincidentally, Likai (one of the students from China) just walked in, so Gabor asked him what he thought it was. After a few seconds of pondering, he grabbed Gabor's butt! Everyone burst out laughing! I guess sometimes, action speaks louder than words...

The next few days are gonna be hectic for me. My task is well, a bit huge, but I'm taking it a step at a time. I guess Iwakami-san and Takatoshi-san are doing fine, as they looked fine. Lolz. We'll see about that soon.

Some nice scenary

2005-01-18T01:06:00.000+09:00

Here are some nice shots I took last week (it maybe a bit large):

Here's another one:

Fatigue really is setting in due adapting to short day and long night in the winter. Guess have to sleep early and wake up very early to keep oneself afresh. Therefore, good night for now, it is 12:10AM in Japan now. Oyasumi nasai.

Tired & Fatigue Setting In

2005-01-17T17:20:00.000+09:00

I can feel it now. The tiredness and fatigue are setting in. I can see it in Chin Ho and Yaomin, and I can see it in me soon. Maybe we have to overcome this. This is definitely not good for work.

Yesterday night, was not exactly the kind of dinner I would have liked. Lolz. But at this rate, I'll eat anything. I'm just glad I bought the ice-cream so soothe the taste down.

Lunch just now was a pain. I wanted to add in beansprouts and long beans into my Maggi, but I had to clean them first. For example, beansprouts, I prefer to have the end removed. It was tiring, but I managed. In the end, I had a filling lunch.

The snow is falling again. Yes, after 2 days of no snow, but rain, it has come again. Although it doesn't look as heavy when we first came here. But I guess we're adjusting pretty well to the cold, as we start not to use our winter gloves. Maybe soon, we'll not even be needing our down jacket!

We had a small talk with Martin just now. He was here to drop by the library. A very rare opportunity to see him, as he is usually at the BioLab.

Now waiting for the Fedora Core 2 CD to finish downloading. Need to install MySQL so that I can do my work. Understanding KEGG API was just the first step. It is now time to move on.

Big time.

The Office, Scenaries-from-Office and GABOR 老板

2005-01-17T03:18:00.000+09:00

Photos shot in the 3rd level 'Office'.

What we see from the 3rd level 'Office'.

Closed up view from the same place on ground level.

Gabor at work answering question from Azhar; thats Azhar's laptop if you remember.

Gabor again, with a pose readied for the shot.

A night of disasters

2005-01-17T01:14:00.000+09:00

Man... The kitchen stinks big time! Why? Someone microwave some wedges for 30 (sanju) minutes, when it supposed to be 13 (ichiisan) minutes. Either the person telling the other person 13 minutes but the other person have hearing problem or the person who tells have speech problem.

However, the best part of the dinner is still the ice-cream. Thanks for the ice-cream!

New videos

2005-01-16T01:21:00.000+09:00

[1st Vid]The nicest self-cooked-meal we ever had in Tsuruoka or ...
R-Click Save As Here

[2nd Vid]Emergency News Report thereafter
R-Click Save As Here

Konnichiwa

2005-01-15T02:01:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa. One word I can't stop saying today. It wasn't as cold today as previous days, mainly because it has not been snowing. Yes, I know... It is STILL 0 degrees celcius outside, but it's fine for us.

Ronnie left for Tokyo this morning to meet up with Prof Tomita. I think he had quite a stay with us, cooking and playing table tennis. Iwakami-san will post up the table tennis videos soon.

Today was the best dinner in 4 days. Thanks to Takatoshi-san. I only cooked the rice, beat the eggs, and washed the long beans. A very filling meal, which was recorded again, by Iwakami-san.

We have received our share of work today, so we can't go out as much. Though we did went out to buy groceries.

Still left with 84 days. We'll see what will happen.

Kunni-chiwa. Ku ku ku kun, ku ku ku kun. Kunni-chiwa.

Today was a normal day and

2005-01-14T02:42:00.000+09:00

..... ES"B"N Table-Tennis Championship FINALS [strong SINGAPORE VS latoya? LONDON]

Bringing you the clear footage of entire Table-Tennis match amongst representative of 2 different countries.

[Featured:]
(1) Before the match, in the players 'resting room'
(2) Warm ups of the finalists
(3) Finals Match Set 1
(4) Finals Match Set 2 where the final winner emerge

.. coming soon

Sianz...

2005-01-13T02:30:00.000+09:00

* I lost my blog the second time AGAIN! *
Day 1: Nice Flight. Snowy weather.

Day 2: Weather was bad, here are photoshots:

BioLab is well-equipped, here are some photoshots:

Snow ..

2005-01-13T01:45:00.000+09:00

Its more snow today than yesterday, its bloody heavy and Ronnie(Our i/c) said it was just the beginning` Whatever.
This is the first time I see snow in my life so Im quite excited; to describe snow; its cold(Ice), its v white(Can turn dirty oso, drk grey), feels like minced ice ... and can be very painful when wind blows it hard on your face.

E next vid Im trying to show you guys the snow and the surfaced-frozen pond. For those who missed Gabor, you can check out a glimpse of him too.

As e troublesome usual ...
(1) Access ftp://lehiep.netfirms.com
(2) You will fail accessing .. now right click select 'Login as..'
(3) User Id: lehiep Password: tiamoltd
(4) First vid is 'snow1.MPG' in /TempCheck/ folder

Experience problem? Refer to the troubleshootin tips on the post below ... hah

and Yaomin just lost all he had wrote for e blog a second ago because of a fag pop out. Lol, he's pretty fed up now. Maybe he will write another 1 now .. a more lousy one, we will see. LOL

The Day I Had My Maiden Flight

2005-01-11T23:01:00.000+09:00

[Mood: Great] [Mentally: Frozen] [Physically: Shivering] [State of Mind: Thawing]

It was my first time going on the plane. It was nervewreaking, but the presence of my family and friends settled me down. Although it was kinda sad to leave them. After we checked in, the 4 of us went to look for our gate entrance.

We had some time to kill, so while Ronnie used the free calling, the three of us went around the place. We dropped by the Cactus Playground before heading off to board the plane.

I managed to catch the sunrise from the plane as I woke up in the morning. The in-flight screen also shows the real time display of the plane flying.

When we reached Narita Airport, Tokyo, we boarded a bus to go to Haneda Airport. I didn't expect it to be THAT cold, but it was quite an experience. The airport was having what Chin Ho would call as "Short Skirts Galore". And I wonder how they can wear short skirts in a freezing time like this.

Moments after taking off for Shonai, I took pictures of the landscape and clouds. Call me crazy, but I don't care, since it's my first time. I guess what really took my breath away was the first look of Shonai covered in snow.

Akiko-san picked us up from the airport, and drove 2 of us to the campus, witht he other 2 in the taxi. We were introduced to the guest house, which was quite fine, and then brought to meet Gabor. Gabor then showed us around the campus, and brought us out to buy groceries. It was pretty fun, until the cold wind started blowing in our faces. I suffered some very minor scratches due to the snow hitting my face.

At night, the three of us went out to play in the snow. Stepped into a couple of thick layers of snow, payed some snowballs, then build a snowman. Or more like a miniature one. But it was kinda cool.

Ok, I'm feeling really tired right now, and the snow is still falling outside. Yaomin forecasted it to be -10 degrees outside. I just need a hot bath, and some sleep.

First video uploaded, more to come`

2005-01-11T21:24:00.000+09:00

I just uploaded a video footage from Tokyo Nareda, its shot somewhere in and outside the Airport.
Its abit troublesome ... but to dl the file >>
(1) Access ftp://lehiep.netfirms.com
(2) You will fail accessing .. now right click select 'Login as..'
(3) User Id: lehiep Password: tiamoltd
(4) First vid is 'Haneda1.MPG' in /TempCheck/ folder

nt:if u experience troubles followin my instruction, go to www.download.com and download leapFTP. Install it and try again the instructions'

Thats all' Ciao

This is freakin first post FIRST DAY

2005-01-11T20:18:00.000+09:00

What can I say? IAM IN JAPAN!!!!! chillin off ...

I will post videos and pictures soon` Yaomin and Azhar got their piece to post also. :)