Recent days.

Tuesday 5 October:

- Woke up early to catch a bus. However, due to the last minute distraction, I missed the bus and arrived at class late. The lession was that, the first decision is always the best one because it also partially comes from your instinct, while the second one purely comes from reasons.
- Met the Filipinos friend who worked in Osaka. It was the warm reunion. Will visit his office soon. It is also interesting that I will ask him about possibility of working in Osaka after I completed this exchange programme.

Friday 6 October
- Went to Kyoto and visited Fushimiinari shrine. I climbed the mountain and had a nice chat with an old man who ran the shop there. However, he told me that I was only half way through the top. After the mountain climbing, I also visited the old souvenir shop but couldn't find a cute shopkeeper whom I met two years ago. However, since I noticed that the shopkeeper who was there at the time I arrived at the shrine and the time that I visited the shop were not the same ones, if I have a chance I will visit this place again. I want to settle these unfinished businesses.

- Met Japanese friend at Kyoto station. Realized that how difficult it is for not to have the cellphone. I was also asked by the police to present my papers. Everything was fine. The police here is quite good mannered. After meeting my friend, we had lunch together and visited a temple.

- Kyoto is a very nice place for walking, everything are in grids. However, it's surprising to know that it is even more expensive in Osaka. I spent almost 5,000 yen for the entire day.

Thursday 7 October

- Met a nice Taiwanese girl on the bus to university.
- Got into a Shakespeare class, but couldn't understand anything.
- Really wants to find my cute combo breaker really soon.

Saturday 9 October
- It rained all day.
- Came across a great series called Byakuyako. Haruka Ayase is super cute.
- Went to the old ramen place at Senri Chuo. Fortunately, there's a kind auntie who treated me a "partial dinner"

Monday 11 October
- Have a great sport day. Got many things from participating the competition. Met lots of nice people. Even though it's very unclear whether I will get my long awaited girlfriend here, I am so glad to meet lots of nice people here in Osaka.
- Unfortunately, since I forgot that there's an extra charge for using an atm in the evening, I have to eat buns for dinner.

Orientations

Since there're lots of orientations in these three days. I don't go to anywhere except for a tour within the campus. I have met many new friends. However, since this programme is for international students in nature, I have befriended only 3-4 Japanese students. Anyway, quality should be given more importance thatn quantity, shouldn't it?

On Thursday, I went to Toyonaka campus by Train. However, it appeared that my room mate Kim, who went there by bicycle, arrived at the campus much quicker than me. What a surprise!
Will find his special route somehow.
I also learned from my colleagues that the university dorm, though much cheaper than my place, had lots of troubles. How fortunate that I didn't push so hard in changing my accommodations. The saying "You got what you pay" is still applicable in this case.

Tomorrow, all the classes will start, hope that all the things will get well with usual.

Staurday-Monday

15 Sept 2010
- Buy the clothshanger from Saty-know that the Japanese has a special way of packing the big stuffs.
- Found out that I could bu cheap Sashimi at the Supermarket.
- At night I met another thwo Danish people and one Amermican from Seattle. All of us went for drinking at Umeda. Hopefully that I will be able to ride a fenris wheel someday.

26 Sept 2010.
-Mostly stay at home. However in the evening I went to explore how to get to the Campus on food. Even got lost at first, I found out that it took about half an hour to walk from my place to the campus.
- Will try to play Starcraft lesser.
-Came up with some resolutions for myself.

27 Sept 2010
- Finally got the alien certificate and opened the bank account.
- In the morning I went to the Yamada station on foot. Found out that it took about 40 minutes. On the way I also found students do apublic works. Very interesting.
- Bought Hankyu pass. Costs 1200 yen. I later found out that it couldn't take me to places in Osaka. However, I found out that it can be used for travelling to Kyoto.
- I went to Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto to find my short term crush that I met two years ago. I found the shop where we worked at. However, it was closed because I arrived in the evening. The shrine was closed as well. I will try next time.
- Met two colleagues from Thailand and Korea.
- The orientation will start tomorrow. Hopes everything will go well.
- Met an oussep colleagues from France.

Second and Third day in Japan

23 Sept.

- I went to the Shopping mall to buy some stuffs for my new apartment.
-In the afternoon, the technician came to fix my AC. Actually, the thing wasn't broken. There's only some misunderstandings. The even though he couldn't speak English, the technician was nice and had a mild manner.
- In the evening I went to the Shinsaibashim the shopping district where I had visited two years ago. I also had a ramen in the same place. It's 850 yen.

24 Sept 2010
- In the morning I went to the City Hall in Suita. Got the registration and insurance matters done. However, I still had to apply for the certificate on Monday and opened a bank account then.
-In the afternoon, I went to Den Den town at Nipponbashi station. There were tons of interesting such as anime stuffs, toys, and maid cafes. In fact there were also adult stuffs. By the way, all of them were expensive. Before I returned to my place, I had lunch at maid cafe called E-maid. The maid sans there were nice. One of them could speak English fluently.
- I started to study more Kanji alphabets now. Hope it will get better.

First day in Osaka

I just arrived in Osaka today for my participation in the long awaited Exchange programme. Even though there are several inconvenience occurred during the day: Have to fly by the economy class instead of the expected business class, the broken AC while the weather is still bery hot, and the internet that is not wireless (that makes me travel to the other part of city to buy the LAN cable), things still go well. The staffs and the colleagues are very nice. Like the previous visits, many Japanese I have encountered (such as Taxi driver, Waitress in the Ramen shop ) are professional enthusiastic in their works.

I have several expectations when I come to attend this exchange programme. Hopefully that all of them will be fulfilled.

Just returned from wisdom teeth surgery.

This week is quite hectic for me. There were many things done, and there were things to complain. However, I just returned from the wisdom teeth surgery. The medicine's effect is wearing off, and my wound is getting painful. I will not be able to do much thing tonight, or even this weekend or nextweek. Wishfully, I will be able to get through this painful times.

Getting bored, but still waiting...

My certificate of eligibility for educational stay in Japan (CESR) arrived at my place last Friday. Will apply for the Japanes visa within this week. As of today, there are 34 days left before the new chapter of my life begins.

As my departure for Osaka is drawing closer, for somewhat reasons, I feel that I am getting lazier. There're certain things to be completed, and there's also several future projects come into my head (writing short novels, translate English books, etc.). However, I feel like I am unable to take any concrete actions at this time. I also feel that I can't focus much.

Just make a wish that my laziness and my lack of focus will be over soon.

Back from Vietnam.

I just returned from my trip to Vietnam this afternoon. I couldn't fund Elly during my journey.

By the way, I have to say that people at Vietnam are nice and helpful, and I would love to go there again if I have more opportunities. It's so unfortunate that there'e not much free time for me to explore Hanoi after my work was finished yesterday evening. I just managed to dropped by few places (temple of literature, Ho Chi Minh Mausolem, Presidential palace.) and had to returned to my hotel.

There's also one funny thing about Vietnamese channels that aired foreign movies. Instead of using dubbers, they use interpreters instead. In certain Korean dramas, only one female interpreters "translated" the speeches of every characters, man and women. The translations were also made in monotone any way.

With this reason, I decided to browse for other channels and came across the NHK world, which is very interesting. I also found many interesting shows such as:

- Tomohiro's railway tour in China

- A is Asia. I saw a interviews on famous "Otaku" Danny Chu and the Chinese girl who pursued to be a voice actress in Japan and had to overcome lots of obstacles.

- Gentle Journey.

- Imagine- Nation : I saw a very interesting scoop on an RPG-game (partially )by Ghibli studio: Ni no Kuni (the second world).

Anyway, I have to complain about the airport on my departure. There's no bank to change my currency back, and the staffs worked very slowly. By the way, I have to thank the bookshopkeeper who exchanged dollars with my VN dongs.

After this, my next destination,if not Brisbane-Australia, will be Osaka-Japan.

One more critical day before the long break.

Yesterday, I met my thesis advisor to report him on my work progress. The meeting started from 5.30 from 7.15. It's quite long, but it's fortunate that every thing went well. According to mny calendar, I am supposed to meet him one more time before I leave for a 10 months- exchange programme study in Osaka.

When I look back on my thesis, it has been a long, tiresome journey. Even though at this point, it's still unfinished, but I feel relieved that I have got through lots of hard times.

In the beginning, everything looked bad. The schedule was very tight. I was unfamiliar with the topic, and unable to change it. I had to made appointments with various people for my preliminary thesis structural exams and had to travel around the city and made a lot of phone calls. Things were very tough then, and that made me want to quit from my studies for many times. I was also depressed among hearing that lots of my friends, who studied in the non-thesis masters degree abroad, were graduated. Their course were shorter (one year, when mine is four years). They got more fame and opportunities. Why do I have to stuck with this? I kept thinking about that for many many times then.

However, after I passed the prelimn exams, I had more times and able to produce more.The tide was changed. That was a great relief. There is more hope now.

Just simply hope that thing will go smoothly until the end of my masters study.

14 Blades: Where have all the good wuxia movies gone?

Last night I have watched the film 14 blades starred by Donnie Yen at home. Actually, I planned to watch it when it came to the cinema. However, at that time, I have to travel abroad and found out after my return that it had gone.

After I finished the film, I was quite disappointed with the movie. It's not as exciting as Ip Man1 &2, which Donnie Yen also starred. Furthermore, the wuxia elements in the film were much lesser than I expected. In particular, Supernatural attack moves existed, but were little and not spectacular. There were also uses of annoying camera moves, and storyline was very simple.

From my opinion, after the coming of certain successful wuxia films (such as Storm Riders 1 , Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Zhang Yimou's movie), the wuxia films and series became seriously misled. They started to focus more on the use of computer graphics instead of fight choreographies and swordplay. Instead of making fight scenes fast and furious, they decided to make it slower, attempting to make it graceful like Zhang Yimou's movies. Lots of wuxia elements such as qigong and martial factions became ignored. That make things screwed up for me. (There's one exception. The film Kung Fu Hustle by Stehpen Chow was vey good. Even though the setting took place in modern age, and its genre is comedy, but it had all elements of good wuxia movie)

Anyway, I am still waiting for the day that the actual quality wuxia film return to the industry.

Next week- Vietnam

I was informed by my boss that I will be sent to the meeting in Vietnam next week. Even though I don't know her much, don't even know her personally, I really wish to meet Elly Tran Ha (right) there. She's charming and very sexy.

Unfortunately, the chance would be very slim. My schedule is very tight and it would be almost impossible to find a celeb in a big city where you have been to for the first time.

Just wonder will I ever get a cute, decent girlfriend who will break my "MISS" combo.

Hirano Aya

I came across the news about Hirano Aya, the famous voice actor of many anime characters, including the role of Suzumiya Haruhi (above). Recently she gave an interview about herself and her personal relationship. Unfortunately, some of her zealous fanclub went berserk ,started destroying her merchandises, and showed their works on the internet.

Personally, I don't agree with their immature actions. Even though it's quite hurt to know that someone you adore is not as same as what you think (Once I was very shocked after knowing that my ex-crush was actually a drinker, smoker, and sometimes football gambler. I had been thinking about her as a "good girl" type for years before then. ), every person has their own parth, and their own choice. If he/she had made the decision, with their discretion, so be it.

Starcraft and my childhood memories.

Recently, I had come across several articles and clips on the game Starcraft II. Lots of childhood memories come back to me.

Around 12 years ago, when I still played lots of Computer games, Starcraft was one of my most favourite. It, along with its expansion set Brood War, offered very exciting gameplay, along with truly epic storyline. One of my favourite characters is Sarah Kerrigan (above). It's truly tragic that due to the betrayal by her commander, she was corrupted and became the greatest villain of the series. Even her lover, Jim Raynor, who tried to bring her back from the darkness, finally unable to withstand her evil and swore to kill her with his own hands.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the entire game by then. Since the time I entered high school, I had lesser and lesser opportunities to play computer games. Then I had to focus on passing the entrance exams, which was very tough. Even I later managed to enroll in the desired university, I had shifted my focus to reading novel s and watching animes instead. I didn't focus much on reading game news like before.

When I heard on Starcraft II, I really wanted to play it, and also wanted to finish the first series beforehand. It's what a pity that I lost the CDs when I moved to my present home. Looking forward to buy it somewhere soon.

3 August : Still uneventful

Quite free today, since my supervisors weren't in the office. Strangely, I didn't feel relaxed much because I have to draft my thesis. This thing had been bothering my life for a while. Just hope that I will withstand it until my departure for Osaka. By then, I will have my long term retreat for ten months.

I watched an anime "Break Blade" in the evening. The lead female , Sigyl (this lady) was nice. However, even though I physically like that, another part in my mind quite disagree that the anime makers and writer put her in indecent clothes for many times. I think her character does not fit that.

At night I tried to start reading Japanese novel. Very difficult, since my Japanese skills is still low. By the way, I managed to learn some new Kanji alphabets.

That's all for today.

My first post.

This is my first post. For those who manage to get here, nice to meet you all! I have to apologize that there's no stories for you this time, due to my pile of missions in these recent days. I have to admit that I am not so skillful in multi-tasking.

Personally, I am not a good writer at all. However, it has been years that I have been dreaming of writing something big (like a best-selling novel that is adapted into high-budget film), so this place would be at least an opportunity for me to sharpening my writing skills.

Wishfully, I will be able to write new stories soon.