HIROSHIMA - THE TIME IS NOW!!!

23rd Week - Friday - Sunday (130608 - 150608) Good Bye Hiroshima...

2008-06-13T01:39:00.009+08:00

Like every drama serial, it is now the last episode of my Hiroshima story. Everything still seems like a dream to me. Part of me will always belong to Hiroshima and it will be my second hometown after Singapore...

Looking back, a lot of things have happened. From my first meeting to my interactions and encouragements I have received, it is now time for me to contribute back when I return.

Will travel up to Tokyo with Kenta in 2 hours time at 8pm and then fly to Hokkaido on Wednesday. Now my travelling adventure will start again. Yeah!!!

Hope I can update as much as possible and ja ne!

Last Farewell Lunch with colleagues...

Okonomiyaki Dinner with Kenta...

Genbaku-Dome at the back...

Last Ride on the Electric Tram...

One last touch of the deers...

They really eat anything... Haha!

Trying out the ojisan's senbei (rice crackers)...

One last pose with the torii gate...

Last look of everything...

What did you see, Kenta? Haha...

Having a farewell Takoyaki dinner with Dan Shibu members...

Yeah!!!

Kenta displaying his cooking skills...

Receiving a gift from our leader...

Getting ready to try their takoyaki...

Thank you everybody!!!

23rd Week - Thursday (120608) Long time no see!!!

2008-06-12T15:05:00.014+08:00

First for some temperature updates. Morning is now 24 degrees and mid afternoon is 30 degrees. Almost the same as Singapore but the sun's not as strong as Singapore's though...

Had a farewell lunch with the FordWalker team in a Vietnamese restaurant. Up next, got the next batch of interns info from Claire. She will teach them Japanese or a crash course before they come to Japan, something which they really needs!!! Haha... They will end up like me when I recalled back my first few weeks when I completely couldn't understand what everyone was saying. Now comes to think of it was all funny and beautiful memories....

While working mid-way in the office, I finally received Kenta's reply that he has arrived in Hiroshima! Hooray!!! Haven't seen him for 5 months since that day I left Changi Airport. After work, I went to Hiroshima Station to pick him up, had dinner with his friends and then went kaikan to attend my last meeting in Hiroshima.

And the following are just some facts that I thought of at this moment of typing and decided to include it down:

Interesting Facts about Japan that I encountered so far:

1) Weather Forecast: Very accurate and everyone uses it to plan their activities ahead. I myslef is convinced on many occassions. :)

2) Most of the cars here have GPS system in-built (except import cars) and it is very useful when travelling to unfamiliar places. (But sometimes, it might lead you to a wrong exit or route... hehe...)

3) The convenience stores here is 4 or 5 times bigger than Singapore's and they have DIY photocopying services. You can even pay phone, internet bills as well as bus and air tickets at the convenience store (or the people here call it combini...)

4) It's very hard to find rubbish bins as the culture here is to bring back your own rubbish home to throw.

5) Vending machines: They are abundant everywhere. There's also cigarettes vending machines and one big pack cost 300 yen (ard $4 as compared to $10 in Singapore). No rubbish bins but a lot of recycling bins for your plastic (PET) bottles.

6) 80% of the dogs I've seen here wear clothes. Very fashionable...

Kenta has finally arrived in Hiroshima or in Japan after his crazy backpacking... haha...

Dinner at Sukiya...

Posing with the Student Division members...

What are you pointing at?

Tomorrow will be my last day in office. My sup will bring me to the other office to bid farewell to everyone there. Still don't bear to leave so soon. Will update again before I leave Hiroshima this Sunday night...

23rd Week - Monday to Wednesday (090608 - 110608) Photos, photos and more photos...

2008-06-12T06:54:00.004+08:00

Was basically running around taking farewell pics with everyone and giving thank you notes to them. I gave them SSA's orchid postcards and asking them to visit Singapore, seems to be like a Singapore ambassador. Haha...

At the same time, work is also busy for the last week as a lot of my colleagues are away on business trips and I have to cover them for some of the assignements. But it will be the last time and I will definitely miss working with everybody!!! Time, please don't pass so fast!!!

And on Wednesday, after work, one of my colleagues brought me to his house for farewell dinner and after that view fireflies outside his house. It was a one hour drive from the company and probably the furtherest I have come out of Hiroshima City. Haha...

Over in his house, there were 3 cats and 1 dog. I was surprised as it was the first time I witness myself seeing cats and dogs living in harmony together...

After dinner, we went to see the fireflies, my first time. (My colleague says fireflies (Hotaru) season is only for 2 weeks and it survives only on places with clean water. Cool ne!!!) But as it was still raining, it was not as many as we would have expected. But nevertheless, I still got to see it and with one close up... =)

Last Dan Shibu meeting. Giving out SSA times and Creative Life to everyone...

Posing with this huge logo. Haha!

Having a farewell lunch...

Posing together after dinner (Together with their cat and dog)...

The best pic that I can take for the firefly. Everywhere was totally pitch black...

22nd Week - Friday to Sunday (060608 - 080608) Farewell Dinner

2008-06-08T06:58:00.004+08:00

Basically had 2 farewell dinners with company and colleagues over the weekend, one in a spanish and the other Hawaiian style buffet. Yummy! Towards the end, they presented us with gifts from the company and we gave a thank you speech. It was truly an enjoyable and memorable night...

On Sat morning, I attended my last jap lesson and because this weekend was the yukata festival, a lot of people are wearing yukatas walking around the shopping district...

Oh no, less than 1 week left!!!

Having farewell dinner with company on Friday night...

Farewell cards written by my colleagues...

Having one last jap lesson on Saturday... (coincidentally it was the yukata festival over the weekend in Hiroshima. Hence my teachers wore it for lesson. =))

Posing inside the restaurant...

Claire joining in the yukata culture...

Having dinner with our other colleagues on Saturday...

22nd Week - Monday to Wednesday (020608 - 040608) 1.5 weeks left in Hiroshima

2008-06-04T23:37:00.003+08:00

Haiz, time really flies. I'm left with only 1.5 weeks left in Hiroshima. When comes to think of it, I am really grateful to all my colleagues for the past few months with all the help and support they have given me. I will miss working with them and hence I will treasure and maximise the remaining time that I have in Ford.

Now back to work. This week is slightly busy with a major meeting with HQ management. Had to prepare the documents first and hold several meetings to make sure everything is going smoothly...

Other than that, I had a group photo taking with all my colleagues on Tuesday. Will have another photo taking with another batch of colleagues from another project group this Friday.

Also, my colleagues and friends have scheduled in total 3 farewell dinners and 1 farewell lunch with me before I leave Hiroshima. 本当に　帰りたくないな。。。

21st Week - Friday - Sunday (300508 - 010608) Meaningful Weekend

2008-06-01T23:06:00.009+08:00

300508 (Friday) - Singaporean Friends!!!

I went to the train station at lunch time to meet my friends. They were in Japan for about 2 weeks of holidays. They were really running all over Japan, something I salute them. Haha...

They were supposed to reach Hiroshima at 9 plus in the morning from Osaka but because their Shinkansen has a hiccup, all their actvities for that day was pushed back. I waited till 2pm before I finally met them after 5 months...

I brought them to my apartment to put my belongings before heading to the Peace Park. They took a lot of photos and we then visited the Peace Museum.

By the time we came out, it was 6pm plus and we went to eat Hiroshima's local speciality, Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style. =)

We then chatted till 8 plus before we went back to the train station and they took the Shinkansen back to Osaka. I have never talked so much chinese this year after I came to Japan and they kept syaing I talked non-stop. Haha...

Finally, my Singaporean friends have come!!!

Posing outside my apartment...

Us with the Atomic Bomb Dome...

Us outside the Peace Museum...

Eating Hiroshimayaki together...

Posing for one last photo before they go back to Oaska...

After they headed back to Osaka, I waited at Hiroshima Station for one hour before my Japanese friends came to visit Hiroshima. One came down from Okayama Prefecture and the other came all the way from Tokyo, maybe around 4 hours by Shinkansen...

After meeting up, we headed to the other friend's house and drank till 2.30am before all of us were too tired to talk. Haha... I stayed over for one night in their house...

Posing with my Japanese friends one hour later...

Having a drinking and chit chat session...

The rest of next day, Saturday was to accompany them to the Peace Park and walked around Hiroshima's main shopping district, Hondori, before they went back...

010608 (Sunday) - Fishing Trip!!!

Woke up very early today cause I'm going fishing with my colleague and his family. Took the JR for 30 minutes to his station where he picked me up and brought me to the fishing spot.

This was the third time in my life to fish and I still had a faint memory of how to cast the rod, when my friend taught me more than one year ago. But my colleague taught me all the essential steps to fish and after 20 minutes, I'm on my own!

We did bass fishing in the morning till 11.30am. During this time, my colleague caught 6 20cm fishes and I caught none. Haha... I'm still pratising on my casting method. :)

After this, we went for lunch before heading to another place to try out salt water fishing. The environment is very similar to our East Coast's Bedok Jetty just that the beach is smaller but newer.

We spent 1 hour there but could not catch any fish at all. Hence we decided to pack up and head back to have dinner together...

Posing with Sato-san at our bass-fishing place...

Beach in Kure City (Salt water fishing)...

My colleague and me with his children...

My little brother and sister...

We had dinner together and chatted till 9pm plus before I took the JR back home.

I was really touched by their sincerity and warm hospitality and I hope I can meet them again in the future.

Overall, this weekend was one of the most enjoyable and unforgettable one that I have for my whole internship. Till now, I'm still very touched and words could not describe the kind of true and sincere hospitality that I have received from everyone. It will now be my turn to return back and I really hope that they will visit Singapore next time...

20th Week - Friday (230508) Updates

2008-05-23T21:59:00.003+08:00

Hi, I'm back after going into hibernation for the past 2 weeks...

Just finished my attachment report a couple of days ago. It took me 2 weeks to recall and type all the things I have learnt. I was half-working and half-doing my report. So it's really stretched to the max. But anyway, I have finished and it's now time to fulfill the remaining 3 weeks of my attachment and absorb and expose myself to as many different situations as I can. =)

And for the past 2 weeks, quite a few things happened. But I shall sum it up in this paragraph.
I have settled my post-IA trip. I will go to Tokyo first and stay for 3 days before flying to Hokkaido and wander around there till the end of June. Partly it's because June in Hokkaido will be the season for the blooming of different flowers and also escape the rainy season of Tokyo (which is in June)... Haha... Then I will come back to Tokyo and stay for one week before flying back to Singapore. (will be taking A380. Yeah!!!)

Hence the past few weeks is spent on buying my air tickets to Sapporo and confirming my flight back to Singapore as well as buying bus tickets to Tokyo...

And for your information, I was surprised when I read the Seikyo Shinbum last week that Hokkaido's Sakuras were in full bloom on 3rd May, one month later than Tokyo and Hiroshima! Interesting!

And today, me and my colleagues went to attend Claire's presentation on her market analysis. It was a very detailed and well-prepared presentation... But I won't have any chance for presentation because our jobscopes are different. :) Claire's involved in marketing and researching of a market while I'm involved in the day-to-day operations. So if I were to present the engineering terms and concepts, think I will be bombarded with questions as the audience are the real pros... Haha...

And also, I received Kian Joo's postcard in the morning today. Thank you!!! Good to hear that you have scaled the Great Wall of China. Will definitely bring my soul back and let's catch up fast after 10 months of separation! Haha!

In the meantime, I will continue to post pictures taken during Golden Week. See you soon!

18th Week - Saturday (100508) GW Update Part 4

2008-05-10T16:31:00.011+08:00

300408 (Wednesday) - Nara 奈良, Nara Prefecture

Headed for Nara today in the morning. Nara was a bit further from Osaka and I need to change 2 trains from my place in central Osaka. But I took the semi-rapid train which skipped a lot of stations and the whole journey there took around 1 hour. :)

Nara was the very first capital of Japan from the 700s but was shifted to Kyoto after that. The prefecture was more or less a countryside with so many farming fields. But I really liked Nara as it offers an ancient feel with all the Shrines and Buddhist temples. (If you like ancient Japan, then Nara is the place for you!) And unlike Kyoto, everything was clustered together and I can finish exploring the main attractions in 4 hours. =)

One of the many fields on my way to Nara...

The interior of a typical JR train...

A lot of school children visiting Nara that day...

I have reached - JR Nara Station...

The many attractions awaiting the visitor...

Going to the City Information Centre to meet up my free guide to bring me around and explain to me the buildings and exhibits. =)

5-storey Pagoda...

I never know I can find human-pulled trishaw in Japan...

So cute!

東大寺 (Todai-ji temple) - A world Heritage...

Me with 東大寺 temple...

So cute too! But I did not try this cause too many people watching already. Haha...

A blend of ancient foreground with modern background...

A hill at the background with a lot of school children having their lunch there and an overview of Nara...

Another world heritage temple...

Hello!

Deer Crossing - ご注意ください...

Nara Park...

Still within Nara Park...

Making the traditional rice-cake...

Fresh rice-cake on sale...

Tourist place...

こにちは！元気ですか？

Deer Crossing...

Ramen looks so real... Wording with Osaka dialect...

18th Week - Friday (090508) GW Update Part 3

2008-05-09T23:13:00.013+08:00

290408 (Tuesday) - Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture

Decided to travel to Kobe which is also very near to Osaka. Boarded the JR and alighted at Sannomiya Eki (三ノ宮駅). Visited the kaikan first. It is called Hyogo Ikeda Cultural Kaikan. The Sokahan and lady-in-charge brought me around and showed me the exhibits of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. A lot of buildings in Kobe collapsed but the Kaikan was still standing still. It was then a relief centre for the homeless whose houses were destroyed and provided medical supplies and relief for everyone who needs it. Very touching...

After than I went to Kobe Chinatown. It is much smaller than Yokohama's but it was really packed with people waiting to try out the chinese food. But looking at the food, I feel it is more like Japanese than chinese food. Haha...

Sannomiya Station - 2 Stops before Kobe Station...

Hyogo Ikeda Cultural Kaikan...

The biggest kaikan in Hyogo Prefecture...

Taking a pic with 華子さん(she knows chinese!) and 横山さん...

A 10cm depth difference just outside the kaikan when the Kobe Earthquake struck...

Kobe Chinatown...

Map of little Chinatown...

It was really crowded that day...

Hmm, the menu looks different from ours...

Chinese Food...

More chinese food - but a bit expensive though...

After Chinatown, I walked my way towards the port. Kobe is very famous for its port and I wanted to see the Kobe Tower as well. The scenery was a beauty and I just liked the Tower...

The beautiful port of Kobe...

Opposite view - Oriental Hotel...

Reaching Kobe Tower...

Shot from the bottom up...

View from the top...

Inside of Kobe Tower...

View of the Kobe City...

After the tower, I made my way towards the Kobe Earthquake memorial Park, which is just a 10 minutes walk from the tower.

Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park...

Signboard to explain the purpose of this park...

A small preserved section of the earthquake devastated Kobe Port to remind everyone of the tragedy that happened 13 years ago...

My train ticket back to Osaka Station...

18th Week - Friday (090508) GW Update Part 2

2008-05-08T23:37:00.007+08:00

280408 (Monday): Osaka

Departed UNO house in the morning at 9am and began walking to Kyoto Station. My other friends went to Tokyo yesterday afternoon and from now on, I am on my own. =)

Was supposed to go Himeji today but since I could not contact my friend, I decided to stop at Osaka first, which is in the middle of both Kyoto and Himeji.

Hostel mate that I met in UNO house. She's from Yokohama...

Another hostel mate... She's from Shizuoka Prefecture...

Reaching Kyoto Station soon!

Only 14 stops for local train from Kyoto to Osaka...

The inside of Kyoto Station...

The train I took...

I've reached!!!

Famous comedian throughout Japan. She's from Osaka... :)

Typical scene in a subway...

Osaka Castle...

Close-up...

From the top of the castle...

The viewing gallery of Osaka Castle...

A preserved look within a modern background...

I like this pic... :)

18th Week - Thursday (080508) I'm back!

2008-05-07T21:14:00.017+08:00

Finally got energy to do some blogging. Some temperature update first. The temperature nowadays is around 25 degrees in the afternoon and 15 degrees at night. Cool...

The past 3 days has been quite rush in the office. I just realised on Monday night that I have to submit my attachment formal report by the third week of this month and I have not started anything yet! Hence for the past 3 days, I've been rushing to recall and jot down all my activities. Haha... Think this report will keep me busy for May liao...

And yesterday, I was informed of the new batch of interns. The interview period for them will start soon and I looked through their resumes... Hmm... Quite impressive sia... Haha...

Alright, will now start my blog for the kansai trip for last week... =)

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260408 - 270408 (Sat and Sun): KYOTO

We departed at 5.30am cause my colleague could not wake up in time to pick us at 3.30am. The distance from Hiroshima to Kyoto is around 343km and we reached there at around 10am...

On the small road going to the highway. Time is around 6am.

Reaching the highway toll charge gate...

One of the many tunnels along the highway in the Chuugoku region...

Driving past Kobe!

Kyoto, here we come!

The first temple that we visited. But I forgot the name liao. Oops!

Posing the same as the stone structure...

The shopping district of Kyoto: 四条どり (shijoudori)

Our 2nd place of visit: 二条城 - The main and important castle when Kyoto is still the capital of Japan...

The backyard of the castle...

Reaching our stay in Kyoto. The expression on our face says it all...

My sleeping space...

Taking some nice dessert pics while walking around in the city...

JR Kyoto Station...

The famous Kyoto Tower, just opposite the JR station...

At ard 100m high where this shot was taken inside the tower...

Inside of the viewing gallery of the Kyoto Tower...

Mascot for the Tower...

Golden Temple...

Posing with the temple...

Another view...

Wishes that the visitors to the temple wrote...

Taking a photo with the auntie at the Omiyage shop...

Night View of the Tower...

Now back to sleep in UNO house. This time alone. Haha...

16th Week - Monday to Friday (210408 - 250408) Week before Golden Week

2008-04-25T22:59:00.005+08:00

This week was particularly busy in the office, with new assignments and follow-up actions to be done. Also this week's temperature is warmer, with the temp not dropping below 10 degrees. The afternoon sun is just as sunny as Singapore now, the only difference being there is cold wind... This is the most enjoyable period or season of the year according to most of my colleagues... And some of them started to wear short sleeves shirts to work already! :)

Other than work, I am also busy coordinating my stay in Kansai during Golden Week. Golden Week is one of the 3 one week long vacation in Japan (The other 2 being the year end Christmas week and the summer vacation in August). There are a few special occasions that make up this week long hols:

29/4: Showa Day (former Emperor Showa's Birthday)
3/5: Constitution Memorial Day
4/5: Greenery Day
5/5: Children's Day (Japanese Boys' Festival)

But our company has stretched the holidays consecutively and it will be 10 days straight of hols this year! Yeah! :)

Finally confirmed everything on Friday, just in the nick of time and this is my schedule:

26/4 - 27/4: Kyoto Prefecture
28/4 - 30/4: Hyogo Prefecture
1/5 - 4/5: Osaka Prefecture

I'm taking my colleague's car up to Kyoto in 2 hours' time (Japan time 3am) and I haven't sleep at all! Haha... The reason for going off in the wee hours is because there's a 30% discount for the highway toll charges. So my colleague wanna capitalise on this and here we go! Hehe...

We shall stay together in Kyoto for the weekend before we spilt on Monday as they go Tokyo and I wander off to Hyogo. Sounds exciting ne... =)
I will visit Himeji (姫路) and Kobe (神戸) from Monday to Wednesday before heading off to Osaka to meet up with my other friends from Thursday to Sunday. Hopefully there's still bus ticket left from Osaka to Hiroshima, as I asked my 'jap sister' to help me buy in Osaka... :) I hope I can visit the Kaikans and join in the meetings if there are any during the period I am there...

Alright, shall stop writing now and off to double-check my items for my trip! Will be back in one and a half weeks time to update. Cya!!!

15th Week - Thursday to Sunday (170408 - 200408) Zadankai Marathon

2008-04-18T00:10:00.011+08:00

This was the Zadankai week. I basically attended 3 Zadankais and 1 YMD meeting from Thursday to Sunday! For the Zadankais, the theme was about April 24th, the day Sensei was forced to step down as President of Soka Gakkai. Testimonies and Gosho studies were also being shared and explained with the members...

Members from Enomachi District...

Me with the senior leaders...

And for Saturday's YMD meeting, a Komei Party Youth Leader - Masaaki Kankenea came down to Hiroshima Kaikan to talk with the YMDs. The discussion is about the rising fuel cost and his perspective towards it...

And for Sunday's Zadankai at Hongawa District, after the meeting, I had a chat with the senior leader, Sakurao-san, who is the leader of Naka Ward. To my surprise, he asked me whether I know Reverend Watanabe. I told him of course! Sakuruo-san then told me he and Watanabe-san were Soka U school mates and they were the 9th batch! Wow! I was really surprised! I will definitely inform Watanabe-san when I meet him personally. :)

Me with Sakurao-san (middle) and the house owner...

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And other than attanding Zadankais, I also did some cycling over the weekend. For Saturday, I attended morning and afternoon jap lessons before going for cycling.

My chinese and Mongolian classmates together with our teacher for jap lessons...

For the lessons, I can say 90% of the students are from China and they either thought I'm from China or Korea. And some of them don't even know where Singapore is. Haha...

They were also surprised that I am a left-hander and some of them said I'm the first they saw with a left master hand. I was like "Huh???"

This time, there was no more Yamasaki sensei as I was upgraded to another class. The lesson this time was more challenging and I had to constantly asked the person beside me to confirm whether my understanding is correct... :)

But overall, it was a meaningful lesson and it only motivate me to learn even more...

After class, I went for some cycling. This time round, I decided to cycle up one of the hills as the Sakuras up there caught my eye a few weeks back. I cycled for 2 hours before reaching the peak and along certain portions of the way, the slope was so steep that I had to push my bike up! And at one instance, I even had to push my bicycle up the stairs! It was tiring but definitely worth it as after that, I got to see the whole city or at least Minami-ku with the beautiful mountain backdrop... :)

Ogonzan, here I come! (Hill at the back...)

Pushing my bicycle up this slope...

Resting for a while and turning back to take a photo...

Scenery of Hiroshima City from midway up on the hill...

Sakuras trees with petals at the roadside...

Scenery from almost the top of the hill...

I ate some snacks at the peak and enjoyed viewing the scenery at the top for a while before riding down. The downslope was fun and I came down for 10 minutes non-stop just braking and controlling my bike! Never experienced such a long distance down before. Hehe...

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As for Sunday, after the Zadankai, I cycled to Kabe, one of the bedtown of Hiroshima. There was nothing much to mention but if you like the mountains and natural scenery, then it will be a fruitful trip... :) But along certain portions of the journey, the cycling path just kind of disappeared and I had to cycled both on road and pederstrain path... And while cycling through the suburbs, I thought I am in Malaysia again. Haha...

My initial target destination - Miyoshi. But it was simply too far to reach by bicycle... Haha...

Beautiful flowers planted from this family's backyard...

Suburbs feeling...

Simply dangerous to cycle with the narrow roads... Hehe...

One of the many road tunnels found in Hiroshima and other Prefectures in Chuugoku region...

Altogether, I cycled for approxiamtely 50km to and fro and it took me 4.5 hours. After I got off my bicycle, I walked like I was bouncing... Haha...

And the rest of the night was spent on making phone calls and confirming my stay in Kansai as from 26th April to 5th May, it is the Golden week and I wil be having 11 days of holidays!!! Yeah! So I will make use of this vacation to backpack Kansai, find my friends and explore the kaikans!!!

15th Week - Wednesday (160408) My First JR ride home

2008-04-17T23:55:00.004+08:00

You might laugh when you read this but really, after more than 3 months of life in Hiroshima. This is the first time I'm taking the 'MRT' back home. The feeling was very fresh and although there are only 3 stops, I took more than 45 minutes to reach my station! Haha...

This is because the train stopped at Hiroshima Station, the 2nd stop and passengers had to transfer to another train to resume their ride. And as I was not paying attention to the long announcement, I only found out something fishy when all the passengers got off the train and no one came in! Haha!

I stared at the map for quite some time thinking which platform should I take but as I walked, I went to explore the whole station instead. Haha... Actually, this is my third time inside the station and it links the domestic train station with the Shinkansen (bullet train) station. Hence I went to the Shinkansen area to look around and reminded me of the first time of this year when Claire and I just reached with all our luggages and walked towards the long path to the exit at the other end... :)

And upon reaching my station (Yokogawa), as it was raining, I could not walk back. Hence I took the streetcar (Electric Tram) back...

Then at 11.30pm, I went to meet Kondo-san to rehearse for our songs to sing during Zadankai. I taught him our Student Division song "Grow Now Together" and he taught me the 3.16 song "五丈原" (Go Jou Gen). We practised for one hour before I headed home, really tired but happy to have learned a new Gakkai song... :)

14th Week - Sunday (130408) Bicycle Repair

2008-04-17T21:04:00.005+08:00

I went to the bicycle shop in the afternoon today to repair my bicycle. The nut on my left brake came off last Friday while I was cycling to work and my left brake was gone! It was really too dangerous considering the road I'm cycling on goes in and out of the pederstrain pathway and onto the main road. And when it rains, it will be even more dangerous and I don't wanna hit another passer-by again. Haha...

Eventually, other than the brake wire, I had to change my front tire and install 6 pieces of metal rods on my rear tire frame as my bike was really in a bad shape after 3 months of intensive cycling. Hehe...

In the end, the total cost was 4000yen but it was money well spent as safety is the most important! With this freshening program done, I can now cycle even further and with a peace of mind... =)

Unscrewing to remove my front tire out...

Say goodbye to my old tire...

A big difference between the 2 tire threads!!!

Shop owner installing in the metal rods...

Price list for all the services provided...

A satisfied customer and a satisfied shop owner...

14th Week - Saturday (120408) Baseball Game

2008-04-13T22:57:00.004+08:00

Went to watch a baseball game with my colleagues and this was the first time in my life to watch a live game. Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan and soccer is next. The baseball stadium is just a 10 minutes walk from my apartment.

Today's match features Hiroshima Carps v.s. ChuuNichi Dragons (Nagoya Team). The atmosphere is electrifying with half the stadium dressed in red and white (Carp's Shirt Colour) and shouting and singing in Japanese (Different from Singapore soccer matches' shouting...)

And coupled with the stadium's small size, we really get a good close-up view of the players...

I witnessed 3 home runs (2 from Carps and 1 from Dragons) but the ball didn't land in our sector. Haha... In the end, Hiroshima Carps won the match 3-1 and everyone was singing the Home Song to celebrate the victory... :)

Entrance of the Stadium...

The Red and Whites of the Home Fans...

Travelling Fans - Dressed in Blue...

Live in Action...

Fans blowing and releasing the balloons to celebrate...

14th Week - Monday to Friday (070408 - 110408) Sakura Week 2

2008-04-13T22:14:00.005+08:00

The Sakuras continued to blossom and showcase it's majestic flowers that it have to offer. There were a lot of other places other than Peace Park that has Sakuras but not as plentiful though. As the days go by, petals gradually fell off and if there's wind, the petals will get blown away. This was really a beautiful sight to behold, just like those anime whereby the petals came down like pink snowflakes. Simply awesome... And during this week, rain fell for 3 days I think and together with ocassion strong winds, expedited the falling of the petals.

Leaves started to sprout out during mid-week and towards the end, some trees were already fully flowerless. :(

But still, most of the trees are still pink when viewed from far... :)

Alright shall stop typing for now and enjoy the photos ya!

At the other side of the Peace Park river...

View taken from the back...

More Sakura trees...

And at the opposite side of the river...

Sakuras in City Area...

Sakuras in Peace Park...

Night View of Genbaku-Dome...

13th Week (310308 - 060408) Sakuras!!!

2008-04-02T00:14:00.011+08:00

Sorry for the late late update. For the 13th week, the Sakuras were starting to bloom and during this weekend, the sakuras were at full bloom and at it's most prettiest. Also, William came over during the weekend and he can enjoy the sakuras in Hiroshima! Cool! We met up with a lot of people and went to a few places to view the Sakuras. Simply too beautiful and unforgettable...

Alright, let the pictures do the talking for now...

80 -90% Bloomed...

Close-up view...

Another close-up with another tree...

William and I with the night view of Genbaku-dome...

The YMDs and us outside a Gakkai Okonomiyaki shop...

Me and Kigami-san...

Simply too beautiful...

Having Shabu Shabu Chinese Style for dinner. Yeah!!!

Sakuras along the Peace Park River... (Genbaku-dome is on the right side...)

Posing with the SGI tree in Peace Park...

People having Ohanami party under the Sakura trees...

Genbaku-Dome with Sakura...

The flowers just blossomed as well!!!

Miyajima Island with Sakuras...

Sakuras inside Miyajima...

12th Week - Saturday and Sunday (290308 - 300308) Start of Sakura Season!!!

2008-03-31T22:09:00.006+08:00

Basically spent the weekend resting in my apartment to recuperate from the tiredness accumulated over the weeks of work and excursions.

Therefore, spent my time sending e-mails and updating this blog, which took me a lot of time to recall the past happenings. Haha!

And also watched the weather forecast on TV and was informed that the Sakura season is coming!!! It states that Sakura will blossom from 29th March in Hiroshima and 4th April in Tokyo. The blossoming usually lasts for one to two weeks. I'm looking forward to the sakura as this is a once in a lifetime chance for me to experience this... =) Will post a lot of photos then!!!

12th Week - Friday (280308) Saburi-san's Farewell Dinner

2008-03-31T00:17:00.004+08:00

I did 2 tasks and attended a training couse and this completely filled my whole day in the office.

After work, I went to meet the YMDs at 8.30pm to have a farewell dinner for Saburi-san. They chose Teppan-yaki and it is a first for me.

Think we ate more than 15 dishes and I simply tried out every dish and was completely full till I can't finish my fried rice at the end. Hehe... And after the dinner, Kuroda-san presented Saburi-san a memento with the YMDs msg on it as well as a souvenir of Gakkai. I bought some cake muffins and developed a few photos with us together for him to keep.

The chefs are really busy for the night... Hehe...

Mochi covered with bacon. Yummy!!!

My fried rice...

A gift from the YMDs...

My Tokaichi District YMDs. Yeah!

Take care, Saburi-san!!!

With that, we departed and wishing you all the best in your future endeavours, Saburi-san. Let's meet in Singapore in the future!!!

12th Week - Wednesday & Thursday (260308 - 270308)

2008-03-31T00:01:00.004+08:00

Nothing much to report for these 2 days except I forgot to wear my jacket as I went down and decided to try cycling with just my long sleeve shirt on. For the first 5 minutes, I was shivering and regretted my decision not to go up to take my jacket. The temperature then in the morning was 6 degrees but I don't think it was that cold. (or maybe I'm used to the temperature already? haha...)

Then during lunchbreak, my HR manager and I went to the Prefectural Office where the person I knocked into on Monday was working and formally apologised to him. I'm relieved to see that he is fine and did not sustain any injuries except a small cut on his finger. We stayed for 15 minutes until 1pm where he has to get back to work.

At night, I received William's call to say that he will be coming to Japan tomorrow! Yeah! But he will go to Osaka first and will come to Hiroshima probably on next weekend. I can't wait to meet him and in the meantime, I will go and arrange the meet-up with his colleagues, friends and YMDs...

As for Thursday, I was informed by my sup that the company will be holding a Hanami Party in Peace Park next Friday and asked to go to the Peace Park to help reserve the place in advance on that day. This is because the Sakura period is coming and it is a custom or culture that the Japanese will sit under the blossomed Sakura trees to have a picnic and have a gathering. I gladly accepted the task and I can't wait for that occasion to come! I hope William will be able to reach on Friday so that he can join all of us for the Hanami party and catch up with his former supervisor and colleagues.

And before I left the office, I went to check out the new car that my colleague just bought and received earlier in the day. Cool! The plastic wrap of the seats has not been removed yet! Haha!

And for the night, I slept early as I have not rested enough for the past few days...

12th Week - Tuesday (250308) 3.16 Singapore published in Seikyo Shimbun!

2008-03-30T23:38:00.005+08:00

My sup caught a flu and did not come to work. Hence I worked on a few matters and attended the meetings with another colleague.

I went for my regular Dan Shibu meeting and they gave me a surprise. They told me that the Singapore 3.16 appeared on today's Seikyo Shimbun! I informed them last week as well as during last month's Zadankai on the happenings of Singapore's 3.16 activities but don't think I elaborated fully and clearly. So I'm really happy that this article appears and informed them clearly of our activities in SSA. There was one page where all the Singapore members gathered together to take a group photo. They were trying to find William but could not find him. Haha!

I tried searching but I could not find him too! Instead I saw GD Ong, Wan Xiang and Calvin. NTUSD, are you guys in the photo?

Yo guys! SSA appearing in Seikyo Shimbun!!!

MP George Yeo visiting our kaikan...

NTUSD and William-san, 皆さんは　どこですか?

During the meeting, I was told that Saburi-san will leave Hiroshima this Sunday and stayed in Aichi Prefecture for good. The YMDs have organised a farewell dinner for him this Friday and I agreed to join them for one last gathering with Saburi-san.

After the meeting, we went to Kojo-san's house to have curry dinner and just nice, I haven't had dinner yet. So I could eat a lot! Haha!

We ate and I showed them the pictures taken at Soka U until 12.15am when we left home.

Having dinner at Kojo-san's house... (Saburi-san: 2nd from right)

Sad to hear that Saburi-san is leaving cause he was a really good leader and a fatherly figure to a lot of YMDs. But maybe it is time for him to move on and take up new challenges in a new environment. 佐分利さん，all the best and 頑張ってね！！！

12th Week - Monday (240308) Accident

2008-03-30T19:39:00.002+08:00

I reached Hiroshima Prefecture at 6am but the bus made several stops at different stations along the way before reaching Hiroshima Bus Centre at 7.38am. Then I walked briskly back home because my work starts at 9am. The feeling is now very different from Tokyo. It is a lot more laid back and slow paced than Tokyo and I have to re-adjust again. Haha...

I reached my apartment at 7.53am, put my bag down, took out the important stuff and took a quick shower. I left my apartment at 8.20am and cycled straight to work.

And within 5 mintues, something happened. I was cycling down a slope opposite the Genbaku-Dome and 'bang!' I knocked onto a pederstrain. I fell off my bicycle and slided a few metres off the ground. I quickly got up with my bicycle and luckily the person was standing. After a while, he kneeled down, holding his right leg in agony. I quickly shifted my bicycle to the side and he sat at the sideways. The police came at 8.30am and they took our statements. The investigation was over at 10am and this time, I cycled slowly to office with a lot of caution.

I reported to my sup the reason for being late and I thought I would get a scolding. Instead, he asked whether my injury was serious and went to take the medical kit for me. I suffered only surface scratches to my leg, hand and right cheek and nothing serious. And then a few more colleagues came and checked to see if I am fine. My boss even called me from his office at another location to support me. I was really touched by their kind understanding and caring thoughts but as I created this accident, I will bear the consequences, no excuses...

I will visit the 'victim' a few days later to officially apologize to him...

And for the remainer of the day, I did not do much and my supervisor told me to go back home early to rest as he guessed I did not rest enough on the overnight bus from Tokyo.

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) A Soka University Chapter.

2008-03-30T12:02:00.034+08:00

230308 (Sunday) - Soka University Open House

I woke up at 9.30am in Hiroki's house and bid farewell to him as I walked to San-chan's house.

It was a 20 minutes walk and as this was the first time I'm walking, I actually missed the turn at the junction and went straight! Haha... I noticed something is wrong as I walked to the entrance of the highway and made a U-turn back. :)

Along the way, Keito called me and I was stunned to see her riding a bike! She parked in front and I ran up to meet her. She is now in the midst of moving out of Hachioji to downtown Tokyo and came to pass something to her junior. We took some photos together and had a brief chat before she left. Cool! I never know she could ride a motorbike!

I reached San-chan's house at 11 plus and packed all my stuff.

Balcony view from San-chan's apartment - Can you see the Main Building on the right?

Way cool!!!

We left San-chan's apartment at 12 noon and headed to Soka University, which has a Open House opened to all Junior High and High School students today. I went around taking photos and went to meet Yuhi for a final farewell. As he was a committee of the IP organising group, he was busy answering parents' question when I went to find him. Hence I went to meet other people from other clubs and then went to Ikeda Auditorium for a Open House talk. This was my first time entering the hall and it was really big! I thnk it is even more bigger than our own Auditorium. In there, there were graduates performing, sophomore sharing her testimony and also the school president giving a speech. We stayed till 2pm when San-chan has to leave for his part-time job.

Me at the main entrance of Soka U...

Behind me are all the Sakura trees and it will be very beautiful when the trees are in full bloom in two week's time (around April 4th in Tokyo)

The magnificent Ikeda Auditorium...

The inside of Ikeda Auditorium...

San-chan and I bid farewell to each other in the school and then I went over to find Yuhi. As he was still busy, I walked around the corridor and noticed a photo on the board. It was this year's IP trip students to Singapore! From the picture, I can see that they enjoyed themselves in Singapore, which is good.

The IP students that visited Singapore this year...

Then I stood outside the tutorial room waiting for Yuhi and as he was still busy, I started a conversation with the student helpers outside the room, who are welcoming the parents. Apparently, 4 of them were in the trip that visited Singapore this year and I shared with them my experiences with the Soka U students. I also encouraged them to come Singapore for a one year exchange and it will really benefit their growth and broaden their perspective of things as they experience living in a different country with the different cultures and international friends they will make. And not to forget the Gakkai activities that SSA and SD has to offer!!!

Yeah! Yuhi wearing our SD shirt!!!

Interacting and encouraging the Year 1 freshmen to come NTU for exchange!!!

And after 10 minutes, Yuhi came out and I presented him with our SD shirt and we took photos together as well as with the freshmen. With this, I waved good bye to everyone and wandered around in the campus for half an hour before going out to the Makiguchi Memorial Hall to take some pictures and taking the bus to Hachioji Station to take the train back to Tokyo Station.

Having one last look at Soka U before leaving...

Makiguchi Memorial Hall...

An up-close look...

And from this trip, I really appreciated everyone's help and sincerity and I would like to leave a quote:

"Friendship is a priceless treasure never to be bought or sold - it can only be cherished."

A photo of San-chan, Yuhi and me taken in NTU 2 years ago...

I really cherished the friendship formed with the Soka University students and I will never forget those times when we encouraged and helped each other out. There were laughters, struggles and I was really touched when all of them came to my help when I am in Tokyo. It was really a very wonderful chapter and touching memories that will go deep down inside my memory lane.

And to all the Soka U seniors who have just graduated, all the best on your future endeavours and to those in Singapore currently preparing for the exams and final year students, please take care, study hard, encourage each other and together we will achieve victory!!!

皆さんは　一緒に　頑張りましょう！！！

***********************************************************************************************************
It took me one hour by train to reach Tokyo Eki at 5.20pm (in the train, I saw an interesting advertisement by the Singapore Tourism Board. It shows a Merlion in someone's house and kept spraying water until the person was drenched and his house flooded! haha...) and when I came out and saw the control station, I said to myself 'Wow'! This is so cool! There are so many people and so many different platforms! Think I spent 30 minutes walking around inside the control station exploring all the different platforms and exits before finally got out through one of the exits closest to the bus terminal.

The pipelines of JR map. Now do you realise Singapore's network is too simple? Haha...

But since the time then is only 6pm, I went to explore other parts of Tokyo Eki and aimlessly walked into other shopping centres. But as I was too shagged from the whole day of walking with my backpack, I returned back to the bus terminal and waited from 7pm onwards for my 8pm bus to come.

My night bus boarding platform. 中国 means Chuugoku region of Japan's Honshu Island and not China! Hehe...

My bus back to Hiroshima. Think it's the same bus that I took to Tokyo. Haha...

After that, I took the 11 hour bus ride back to Hiroshima. (I'm starting to miss Tokyo although I have stayed there for only 3 days as the warm and hospitality of the Soka U students really touched and encouraged me to go even further and challenged myself.)

And really, this is one trip that I will never forget...

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) A Soka University Chapter.

2008-03-30T10:09:00.007+08:00

220308 (Saturday) - 原宿、渋谷、信濃町。。。

Woke up pretty late at 10.30am. Apparently, San-chan came back at 5am from the party!!!

We called Hiroki to meet up at 12pm at Hachioji Eki. In the meantime, we chanted and get ready our stuff to go out.

The traffic then was really slow and we reached at 12.30pm. But Hiroki was waiting patiently for us and when I saw him, I was really very happy!!! It has been 10 months since we last saw each other! Memories certainly filled my mind of the times when we were in Singapore. We hugged and took photos together and could not believe that we will see each other again and esp in Japan!

Finally! I can meet you again, Hiroki!

After this, we went to a restaurant to have our lunch and Kumiko joined us not long after. We chatted and rewinded those funny moments when they were in Singapore. I am happy that they kept those as memories...

Hiroki treating me to a katsu lunch...

The 4 of us having lunch at a restaurant in Hachioji...

After lunch, Hiroki went back home to submit his resume as he is doing job hunting now. Therefore, San-chan, Kumi and I went to Harajuku for a walk...

Harajuku is similar to our Bugis, just that it is much more bigger and happening with so many teenagers and tourists cramping the streets. One can also see a lot of weirdos wearing funny costumes and exaggerated make-ups walking around. We walked and squeeue past the main street and bought Crispy Crepes for a break, which is very popular now in Japan...

The popular street of Harajuku...

Some of the weirdos...

San-chan and Kumi decorating our Neo-prints...

Ever so cheerful... Yeah! =)

Hmm, I don't look like myself... Haha...

Queueing up to get our Crispy Crepes...

We then went to other parts of Harajuku before walking to Shibuya (as the train station in Harajuku was seriously over-crowded). It took us 30 minutes to reach Shibuya and there were so many people in these places. We took photo together at the famous big screen in front of the ever busy traffic junction, a trademark of Shibuya before going to Shinanomachi. At Shibuya station, we bidded farewell to Kumiko as she went home.

It took only 10 minutes to reach Shinanomachi from Shibuya (4 stations). Shinanomachi is home to Soka Gakkai and kaikans, Honbu (HQ), shops, concert halls and Seikyo Shimbun are all there! Families belonging to Gakkai would place the Gakkai flag outside their house, making the whole town cosy and like one big family. I reached there at 6.15pm and discovered that the chanting room was closed and we have to go to another place at another street to chant. As a result, I wrote my letter to Sensei on the spot and passed it to the lady at the counter.

After that, we went to the shops to get some souvenirs and because San-chan has another party going on in Hachioji at 8pm, we took the train back.

Over at the Eki, we ate Yoshinoya for dinner and I chose beef don. Then we parted ways and I explored and wandered around Hachioji Eki till 10pm before taking a bus to Hiroki's house.

Hiroki came at 11 plus to pick me up as he was having a farewell party with his peers as his graduation was delayed by one year due to his exchange in Singapore. We chatted in his house till 2am plus until we are all really tired. We just kept laughing and laughing with so many memories to recall... We have to force ourselves to sleep even though we switched off the lights and hiding in our cosy futon... =)

Another memorable day which I will not forget...

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) Soka University Chapter.

2008-03-28T00:10:00.021+08:00

210308 (Friday) - Soka University Graduation

After I reached Tokyo Eki, I was still early as I told Kumiko that my bus would reach at 7am. Hence I wandered around the station and came back at 7.10am. Then I saw a little girl standing at the corner. I walked up to her and took a few seconds to double-check. It was Kumiko! I almost could not recognise her! Haha!

I was really very happy that we are able to meet up again and esp in Japan. =) Kumiko then brought me to the entrance of the gantry and I brought my tickets. (This is my first time for this year taking a train as I always cycle in Hiroshima. Hehe...)

Posing with Kumiko at entrance of Tokyo Eki...

But as she got a job interview in the late morning, I boarded the train myself and headed for Hachioji.

It took one hour for the rapid train to reach Hachioji and over at the Eki, Yuhi-san was waiting for me at the control station! It has been more than a year that we had met up and I was also very happy and touched that we can meet up again!!! He then brought me to the bus terminal and paid for my bus fare to Soka U.

Me and Yuhi at Hachioji Eki!

At the terminal, I can already see a lot of graduate students wearing Hakama in the queue waiting for the bus. The time then was 8.40am but the actual ceremony starts only at 1.15pm and already, people were dressed up!!!

Along the way, me and Yuhi chatted a lot to make up for the loss time and upon reaching Soka U, we went San-chan's house to put my barang barang down first. And yeah! I can finally see San-chan again after quite a while! We sat down and the three of us chatted for a while before I changed my attire and went out at 10am to Soka U, with Yuhi trying to help me get a ticket to enter the ceremony to see Sensei.

The top students for Econs Fac: Sachiko Hara and Keito are in the list!!!

We went to 3 buildings: International Student Building, Economics Building and the Students Affairs Office but to no avail. So we will try the last resort to sneak in later if there is a chance! Haha!

The Soka U graduation appearing in the Seikyo Shimbun on 22nd March, 2008...

I was there... =)

Therefore, with nothing to do at the moment, we went to the canteen to have our lunch. And guess what? While queuing up to buy my coupon, Keiko came up to me! I was so shocked! She was also attending the ceremony as her sister is graduating. I went to take photos with her family and then joined Yuhi for lunch.=)

Posing with Keiko and her family members...

After that, as we are still early before the ceremony starts, we wandered around the school campus with all the graduates taking photos with their family and friends. We went to find Keito and Tommie but couldn't find them. Instead we met a lot of other friends that came to Singapore 2 years ago! We chatted, took photos and then went to find our targets. It was my first time seeing so many kimonos and hakamas. Cool!!! And just before the ceremony, I finally saw Keito! She was wearing a black Hakama and was about to enter the auditorium. We agreed to meet up later in the evening. =)

Me with the Main Building...

Taking a photo with Murakami-san, Exchange Coordinator for the Singapore IP trip...

Then with the ceremony starting at 1.15pm, we decided to try our luck. The Ikeda Auditorium was definitely out as it was only meant for the graduates and their immediate family members. But there was a live video feed being broadcast at 3 diferent buildings and Yuhi brought me to see whether I can enter without a ticket. This year though, the administrators were very strict. Yuhi kept on explaining to them but they simply refused to agree. But I really appreciated Yuhi's help and efforts and in the end, we went to the Student Hall to join Yuhi's friends who also could not see the live feed. We bought ice-cream and waited for Kumiko to come as Yuhi got an appointment later in the afternoon.

At 3pm, Kumi came and 'took over' from Yuhi and together with Ai-san, we went to visit Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. Along the way, I saw Ruriko as one of the student helpers of the International Group. She was really busy...

Kumiko paying my entrance ticket to the museum. ありがとう　ございます！！！

In the museum, the latest exhibition is on Russian Art from the 1600's to the modern era. Through the drawings, one can see the shift in living standards through the different regimes and the struggles that the Russian commoners faced. Some of the drawings were so real that I kept thinking it might pop out of the frame anytime! Haha...

Then at 4 plus, we left the museum and headed back to the University. We waited for the graduates to come out of the hall and we waited at A Building (Economics Fac). Around half an hour later, the ceremony ended and the whole battalion of graduates walked out of the hall. And in our building, we slowly started to see familiar faces. And Kumi was so estactic whenever she saw her seniors. Haha! We took even more photos in the main lobby and I lost count of how many people I have met. The photo thingy lasted until 6 plus when we went to find Tommie...

Me with Prof Honma...

米田さん - You're the man!!!

Shintaro-san and Keito-san! おめでとう　ございます！！！

The Graduation Ceremony was split into 2 parts. Firstly was the graduation where Sensei stressed to the graduates on 2 things, that is firstly, to learn English well and secondly to take care of their parents. The second part is the Honoury Doctorate presented to Sensei by the Kirghiz Republic National University. (Although I could not witness the ceremony live, I am already very happy that I was in close proximity to Sensei and the atmosphere there was totally different.)

Sensei given the Honoury Doctorate by Kirghiz University...

We then went to the road beside the lake to join Tommie and her group for the photo taking. Met up with a few more other friends that I haven't seen for a long time and kept taking photos. In the end, I became the photographer for the group with endless camera waiting for me. Haha...

They dubbed themselves the 'Merlion Group'... :)

The whole bunch of 先輩。。。

At around 8pm, the event was finally over and a few of us decided to go to the restaurant near Hachioji Eki to have our dinner. They asked me what I wanted to eat. I jokingly said Hiroshimayaki and they took it seriously! We walked around the Eki and to our surprise, there was really Hiroshimayaki! Hmm, one can find almost anything in Tokyo!

Yeah! My favourite Hiroshimayaki!!!

Hiroshimayaki - Upsized!!!

We ate, chatted, joked and laughed heartily until 9.30pm when we left the place. And not so far off, we met the whole batch of graduates! They are all going to party! I am seriously impressed by their energy levels. We talked for a bit more before I joined San-chan with his Soka University of America (SUA) friends at a pub. (SUA students came to SUJ for a one week exchange trip...) I was too tired to interact with them considering I never rested at all since my bus ride from Hiroshima. I went back to San-chan's house and along the way, I met Masashiro. He has really matured!!!

Masashiro-san has certainly matured!

I reached home at 10.30pm and girls next door came knocking at San-chan's door. We chatted for half an hour before San-chan went to join his friends for the party. As for me, I was totally exhausted and stayed in his room to rest for the night.

On the whole, today was really too happening for me and it was truly a memorable and unforgettable experience which I will cherish on for the rest of my life...

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) A Soka University Chapter.

2008-03-27T01:19:00.006+08:00

200308 (Thursday) - Departing

Chop chop finished my work in the office before leaving office at 5.30pm. The bus will leave for Tokyo at 8.18pm and I reached home at 6pm to double-check all my items and put them in my backpack before having my dinner.

At 7.10pm, I left my apartment for Hiroshima Bus Centre (On the way, Kondo-san saw me crossing the road near my apartment and was surprised I was carrying such a big bag! Hehe...)

I reached at around 7.30pm and since I was early, I walked around the bus terminal taking photos with numerous eyestares and giggling. But I continued to take photos. Haha!

Finally, with the weight on my back, I decided to enter the warm waiting room and sat down to wait for my bus to come.

Sign at Hiroshima Bus Centre...

The terminal...

Waiting in the cosy waiting room for my bus to come...

My platform... Towards Tokyo!

The bus came at 8.10pm and left on the dot at 8.18pm! Here starts my adventure!!!

Yeah! My bus has finally come!!!

The bus first drove to the next bus terminal at 8.31pm to pick up the remaining passengers and left 2 minutes later. It headed for the nearest highway exit and travelled through a lot of tunnels as Chugoku region has a lot of mountains...

At 9.30pm, I reached a resthouse in Fukuyama still inside Hiroshima Prefecture and to have 1 15 minutes break. The resthouse was similar to our pitstop for KL or Genting bus ride with some food and souvenir stalls.

Taking a 15 minutes rest in Fukuyama...

The inside of the rest house...

My bus!!!

The bus left at 9.45pm and at 10pm, the bus assistant switched off all the lights and closed all the curtains. I was reading my NHR then and was shocked to find the lights off so early. I could do nothing but to listen to my mp3 and trying to peak outside to see where I am.

At 10.30pm, I discovered I was in Okayama Prefecture but after that I gave up looking outside as the bus kept on passing through tunnels and there was nothing much to see.

Then throughout the night, there was no more toilet breaks outside the bus except the bus taking regular stops to let the drivers take a break.

I slept all the way until 5am when I discovered I reached Shizuoka Prefecture! I actually missed the whole part of Kansai! Haha...

And around 5.45am, the sky begins to brighten and at 6am, I was on the Tokyo toll! I slept for a bit more until 6.25am when I discovered I was in Roppongi (六本木)!

And at 6.45am, I reached Tokyo Eki! Hooray! I alighted and went to the entrance to find Kumiko-san, whom I asked her to bring me to Hachioji...

11th Week - Monday to Wednesday (170308 - 190308) Busy Busy Week!!!

2008-03-19T19:16:00.002+08:00

Well, no time to say more. Has been really busy doing a lot of stuff all at the same time. Finalising of my Week 10 Report, coordinating my stay in Tokyo, preparing gifts for my Tokyo friends and many other miscellaneous stuff. The reason why I'm going Tokyo this weekend is to attend Keito-san, Tommie-san and Tomoko-san's graduation ceremony in Soka University on Friday!!! But the most important reason of all is to see Sensei live in person as it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me! Even Kumiko-san has been chanting real hard for Sensei to come Soka U on that day! :)

The weekend's iternary that I planned for and hoped to go includes Shinanomachi (Honbu - Gakkai HQ), Shibuya (our Orchard but a lot more happening) and Roppongi (Toyko Tower!).

Mon and Tues - Busy as usual

Nothing much to say except busy in work and attending my weekly dan shibu meeting. Finally confirmed my lodging on Monday night after 2 days of calling around! Yeah!

Wed (190308) - Packing Day

Rushed home after work at 7pm to seriously start packing my stuff cause tmr after work, I would reach home by 7pm (hopefully...), have a quick dinner and rush off to Hiroshima Bus Centre (apporximately 20 minutes walk) by 8pm to catch my night bus to Tokyo!!!

Hence for the night, I prepared my attire, ironed my clothes, pack all my stuff in my backpack and most importantly, my letter to Sensei! Shall stop here for now. Need to go and pack lei. My stuff are lying everywhere in the room. Haha...

Will definitely post more photos when I'm back! So see you next week!!! (Will be very busy next week too. So maybe will update earliest next Tues or Wed... Stay tuned!)

10th Week - Saturday and Sunday (150308 - 160308) 3.16!!!

2008-03-17T22:24:00.002+08:00

Saturday (150308) - Busy Busy!

This past weekend was a busy weekend for me.
I've been staying in my apartment doing my Week 10 IA report, learning Japanese, planning and coordinating my Tokyo trip for this coming Thursday night as well as getting the gifts for my Soka U friends who will be graduating this Friday. :)
I called my friends in Tokyo at night to settle my lodging but for the time being, there were no available rooms to spare. They were all so busy either with the graduation ceremony or doing job hunting now. And I don't dare to trouble them so much...
But I still got some lobang that I haven't use yet. Haha...
The night ended with some more jap studies and reading before having an early sleep so as to wake up early tmr and have the Sunday morning 'feeling'. =)

Sunday (160308) - 3.16!

Received a call from Kuroda-san in the morning to attend 3.16 meeting, which is the 50th anniversary of kosen-rufu! During the meeting, the individual division chiefs took turns to make a speech and was then followed by choir sang by the YMDs. The YWDs then went up to the stage to recite poems dedicated for kosen-rufu and then was the appointment of new leaders. The event ended with the chief leader giving encouragement and telling us the slogan that Sensei has given to 広島県 (Hiroshima Prefecture).

Slogan for Hiroshima Young Division

10th Week - Friday (140308) My 3rd Zadankai and Birthday Celebration with Hashimoto-san!!!

2008-03-15T10:13:00.003+08:00

This evening will be the 3rd Zadankai for me and as 3.16 is coming, I decided to make another speech in Japanese and share with my Hirose district members.

I think I spent more than one hour in the office translating my script from English to Japanese for the meeting tonight. Haha...

During meeting, I was the last to present and I think my script was around 10 minutes long as I read very slowly compared to other people. Haha…
In my speech, I shared about 3.16 and the activities that will be going on in Singapore this weekend, from William's message. I also shared my thoughts on 3.16 and that I must see Sensei in Soka U next Friday in Tokyo. In the end, I was exhausted from my speech and I think it is more tiring than cycling. Hehe…

Taking a photo with the senior leaders...

After the meeting, we went for dinner with Hashimoto-san and Junko-san. And for the whole meal, they forced me to speak only Japanese and the whole conservation was strictly in Japanese! Really had a hard time understanding their speech and all of them were making fun of me all the time. Haha… Towards the end, before we left the restaurant, we surprised them when the waitress gave Hashimoto-san the cake. (cause Claire informed the waitress at the beginning) We sang happy birthday to Hashimoto-san and then walked with our bikes back home together...

Happy Birthday! 橋本さん！

Posing together...

Same as me, born in the year of ネズミ!

9th Week - Sunday (090308) 竹原　ひなまつり

2008-03-15T09:44:00.005+08:00

The past Monday was Doll's day, a traditional festival for girls. Hence we decided to go to this small town to check out on the dolls that are on display. 竹原 is a very small town about one and a half hours drive from Hiroshima City and it is famous for its traditional preserved building and feeling. Don't need to say more, the pics will do the talking...

Countryside outside Hiroshima City. Looks like Malaysia right? Haha...

Takehara...

A different variety of sakura has blossomed. Not the main Sakura, which might bloom at the end of this month. =)

People learning some traditional handicraft...

Dolls on display...

and more dolls...

Having our lunch at Suki-ya

My hamburger curry rice!

Hiroshima Airport along our way home...

10th Week - Monday to Thursday (100308 - 130308) Busy Busy Week!!!

2008-03-09T15:40:00.010+08:00

This past week has been really really busy as there's one dateline we are rushing to finish. Basically working from 8.30am to 8.30pm (except Friday) and had numerous meetings until I also lost count of how many. Haha... This is the summary of what happened:

Monday (100308) - 2 Months Stay in Hiroshima already!!!

There's nothing much to celebrate my 2 months stay today. But one unique thing is that I started to perspire after cycling. When I reached home, I felt warm and this is the first time I opened my balcony door and I still feel hot! Haha... Think Genting is now colder than here...

Tuesday (110308) - Tiring but Memorable Day

Finally received my gate pass and entry pass in the morning. Now can don't need to sign in at the Guard House. Yeah!!!

Reached apartment at 9pm. Saw Atsu-san outside my apartment ground floor calling my room. I brought him up to my room to put my laptop bag and other stuff down and gave himself a Merlion photo! He was so happy that he asked me to sign on it and he would keep it as a souvenir. Haha... Hope he likes my little gift... :)

This time round, the meeting is not at Kotake. It was a bit far, around 15 minutes of cycle, along the direction of Eba.

Upon reaching, there was a new member but from April onwards, he's gonna live in Hyogo Prefecture and work there. In all, there were 12 YMDs who attended the meeting today and everyone shared their own stuff and I was not excluded! Think I spoke quite funnily and throughtout the meeting, they would laugh if they saw me confused with what other people are saying. Haha... In the end, they announced this week was Chiba-san and Kuroda-san's birthday. And I volunteered to sing them Happy Birthday song in chinese and they laughed. =)

After the meeting has ended, there was some snacks and I ate their home-made sushi, biscuits, tea, strawberry (it is big and sweet!) and red bean paste covered in gultinous rice wrapped with fragant leaf! I have been eating a lot of stuff with red bean today and I start to like it. (Cause in the office, my sup gave me a traditional red bean sweet and I ate red bean bread for breakfast and red bean mochi after work.) =)

We left the meeting place at 11.20pm. Atsu-san and I cycled back home, singing jap songs along the way! We have arranged to go Karaoke next month and really, today's meeting was one of the best and memorable one of all...

Wednesday (120308) - A Touching Day!!!

The weather really took a drastic change this week. The temp last week and this week was totally different! I can still shiver when I go out of office last week but from the past Monday onwards, I started to perspire as I cycle to my workplace(cause I'm wearing 3 layers, thermal, shirt and jacket). I can even leave my jacket in the office now and go out to have lunch!!!

Today's morning temp is 4 degrees at 8.15am, 18 degrees at 1.30pm and 14 degrees at 8pm.

Rushed through my project in the morning and had a meeting today till 12.30pm. But when my sup saw me eating bread for lunch, he insisted on taking me out and treating me for lunch!!! Hence we went to a 焼肉屋 and had a BBQ style lunch! We bbq our own meat and chatted things not related to work. It was an enjoyable lunch and おなかが　いぱい　です!

After lunch, since we still got time, he brought me to one of the shopping centres to visit the Hokkaido Food Fare! We tried quite a lot of different unique food samples but I forgot to bring my camera out! Think I tried raw squid, meatball covered in mochi with soup and a lot of wierd stuff that I never see before. Hope I can go there again and take some pictures. :) We walked around till 1.20pm and headed back to the office to resume our work...

After work, I rushed back to a suppa and bought 2 slices of cake and orchid for Hashimoto-san as it was his birthday today! But as I was going back, I bumped into him and he saw me holding the cake and orchid. He kept saying あやしい！haha... But I returned home first and wrote a msg to him on a birthday card and then delivered to him at 9.30pm. =) おたんじょうび　おめでとう　橋本さん！！！

Thursday (130308) - 3 more months left in Hiroshima!

Today worked from 8.30am to 9pm. Simply crazy but at the end of the day, I felt satisfied as I can also see all my colleagues smiling at the end of the day. Was rushing for a few datelines and had meetings constantly till 8pm plus. Though tiring but it's very memorable. :) Had to even turn down my colleague's offer to go out to the mart! aarrghhh...

On my way home, I was cycling through this dark patch of road and a car was driving slowly beside me. I did not notice at first but when he drove off, I realised it was my sup's car!!! Think he's trying to signal or wave goodbye but I was too focused on my cycling. Haha! Will go and ask him tomorrow morning. =)

Then went to suppa at 10pm plus and saw a lot of cooked dishes at half prices! I felt very tempted and decided to buy fried tofu and fried chicken back for dinner! =)

Given 30% then half price off after certain timing...

My half-priced dinner. Think it cost less than 300 yen. :)

9th Week - Saturday (080308) Burst

2008-03-08T17:04:00.004+08:00

It's official. I'm broke for this month. I have exceeded my budget for March and need to control my spending from now onwards. (It's only the first week of March!) Haha...

Did not go to Takehara today cause our friend woke up late as he slept at 3am on Friday night and could not wake up on time. In the end, we went to Hiroshima Bus Centre to buy my express bus ticket to Tokyo. I will be leaving Hiroshima on the 20th (Thursday) evening and will stay in Tokyo until Sunday evening before taking the overnight bus back to Hiroshima again.

FYI, a 2-way bus ticket costs 21,200円 (~S$280) while plane and Shinkasen is approximately 36,000円 (~S$475).

The bus journey is 11 hours long! (Same time as taking bus from Singapore to Kelantan or Kedah! Haha!) Hence I must definitely sleep on the bus so as to conserve my energy and maximise my stay in Tokyo!!!

Me at the bus ticketing booth...

A detailed look at the bus ticket...

Other than the ticket, today's weather was the warmest by far. The temperature is just like Genting Highlands and even Claire don need to wear her jacket when we went to buy grocery in the morning. :)

The night ended with me going to Kaikan for the Honkan meeting while Caire went for a free movie as our colleague got 2 complimentary tickets...

Shall go Takehara tomorrow as it will be the last day the dolls are on display...

9th Week - Monday to Friday (030308 - 070308)

2008-03-05T23:33:00.004+08:00

This whole week was simply packed with work and I basically work from morning to evening. Too tired to update anything and at the same time, the three first days has nothing much to report. Haha...

Thursday (060308) - Internet is finally up!

Received a call from Claire on Wed that Internet was finally up. But as I was too tired, I waited till Thurs to try it out. Hence when I reached home, the first thing was to try out the wireless connection and after a while, I'm connected!!! Finally!!! After close to 2 months (when we first applied for it on 12th Jan) has the Internet finally come! But 100% credit must go to Claire. Think she went to the Internet shop more than 12 times to press them for it. If not for her persistant efforts, we probably still be waiting for Internet now! Hehe...

Hence the rest of the night was spent on using the Net at its full maximum blast... :)

Friday (070308) - Mazda Museum Guided Tour

Claire and I went for the English Guided tour after lunchtime. We had to take a bus to the other side of the plant where the Musuem is located. On the whole, I was really impressed with the exhibits as it offers an insight into the things I'm interested in as well as the stuff I have been applying in my daily work. I got to appreciate even more after this tour and learned many valuable lessons about car manufacturing which we can't find in Singapore. =)

Me with MX-5 Roadster

A Walk through History

The world famous Rotary Engine...

A Walk through the making of RX-8

A down side is that the stay at each section is too short (cause the tour is divided into different sections) and I can't finish taking photos and reading the description all at the limited time.
After the tour ended, me and Claire agreed to come again in a few months time. Hehe...

The night ended with my dinner, washing of laundry and replying some e-mails before going to bed to have an early night sleep to compensate for the whole of this week.

Next Stop for Saturday: Going to a traditional town called たけはら町 outside Hiroshima City to view the dolls on display (as the past Monday was Dolls Day - ひなまつり)

8th Week - Saturday and Sunday (010308 - 020308) First Wekend of March!

2008-03-02T09:59:00.003+08:00

Wow! Time passes so quickly and now it's already the start of the third month. I still feel like I'm living a dream and this is too good to be real sometimes. Haha... And this is what I have done for the weekend...

Saturday (010308) - Peace Park, Suki Yaki Dinner and 'Jumper' Movie

Basically went to the Peace Museum to get some postcards. There were too many exhibits along the way but today's not the day to view them. Will make a formal visit to the museum and document the exhibits in the future. But as I walked past the exhibits, it was really touching and at that moment in time, I just stopped and a lot of questions just popped out of my head. "What exactly are we living for? What's the purpose of life?" These are the questions that we should constantly ask ourselves and take actions in achieving them. Life is not just about partying and enjoying ourselves with all the food and material things that money can buy... It's really really sad to see the exhibits of people's sufferings and a sense of emotion just ran through me. Global peace must start from each of us and for me, I need to work on my weakness and challenge myself to win over them...

After this, I went around the Peace Park to take photos of the monuments and waited for the sun to set to take a different set of photos. This time round, the sun sets at 6.30pm, much later than it was one and a half months ago. And at 6.45pm, I rushed back to put down all my stuff and headed to Hashimoto-san's house for Suki-yaki dinner.

Suki-yaki is basically a steamboat with beef slices, veges, tofu, mushroom and other ingredients all immersed in suki-yaki sauce. Each of us has an raw egg for us to mix our beef and other ingredients from the steamboat and it's simply delicious!!! We managed to finish up the whole suki-yaki and I was too too full!!! (I skipped lunch today so as to be prepared for the dinner. Haha...) Think I ate two and a half bowls of rice... :) We ate and chatted with Hashimoto-san and wife until 10pm when they need to sleep early so as to wake up at 5am tomorrow to deliver newspaper.

Claire and I having Suki-yaki dinner with Hashimoto's family...

We left and I almost forgot that my colleague is waiting for me outside my apartment to pick me up for the late night movie. I ran to meet him and together, he drove to pick another colleague before heading down to Diamond City's Wald Cinema to watch 'Jumper' at 11pm. (Finally, I can feel the sense of Saturday night life and I haven't got this feeling ever since I reached Japan. Haha...) The interior of the threatre is something similar to our Eng Wah at Suntec and although it's the first day of screening, the threatre was only half-filled. The show ended at around 12.45am and we agreed to catch other shows in the future...

(By the way, Hiroshima football team, a Division 2 side, won the Japanese Super Cup over the League Champions! Yeah!)

Sunday (020308) - Def Tech

Got a morning call from Atsu-san at 10am telling me about a meeting in the kaikan later at 1pm. Hence in the morning, I just lazed around, listing the things I need to do and checked my mails. Then at 12.40pm, I went down to wait for Atsu-san to pick me up. Upon arrival at the kaikan carpark, I was surprised to find all carparks fully parked and a lot of people walking to the kaikan. Atsu-san told me about someone popular coming down to perform but I have no idea who he or the band was.

As I entered the main hall, I was surprised again to see it fully packed with people. We were asked twice to stand up and shift to the front to make way for more people coming in. The banner at the stage shows the words "My Way セミナ一" by 西宮佑騎 - さん (Micro). Then after Atsu-san told me he's from the band "Def Tech", I suddenly recalled Kumiko telling me of this band more than one year ago. This band consists of 2 person and one of them is a Gakkai member. They are really popular in Japan and wow! I'm really fortunate enough to see him live in person unknowingly!!!

Nishimiya-san sang an opening song and the whole hall greeted him with thunderous applause. Then he went on to share about his own experience with Daishonin's Buddhism and how he transformed from a skate-boarding and BMX boy to one that writes songs and performs for the humanity... He then ended with another song called 'My Way" which I found it quite familiar as I heard Kumiko singing the last time. Haha!!!

Atsu-san then brought me home at 3.30pm and from then on, I just stayed in my room did the things I planned out to do...

8th Week - Thursday and Friday (280208 - 290208) Last Days of Feb!

2008-03-01T09:58:00.002+08:00

Thurday (280208)

Workload kept increasing in the office, with new tasks and assignments coming in more each day. There were some occasions that all the small misc work came to me at once and really had to finish them up first before resuming my proper work...

During the midst of it, I received a jap guidebook from one of my colleagues. Think my jap is too powdery liao, that's why he gave me it to me to improve on it. Haha...

After that, I worked as usual and at the end of the day, I was too tired and thinking of cycling 40 minutes back makes me even more tired. Haha... However, another colleague came to me and offered to drive me back as it's on the way. Yeah! Hence, for the first time, I did not bring back home any stuff and just go home empty-handed to have a good rest...

Friday (290208) - Tokyo I'm coming!!!

Woke up a bit earlier than usual as my colleague is picking me up. He came at 7.50am and we reached office at 8.20am. This was the first time that I do not need to cycle through the crowd and dashed across traffic junctions and just simply relax and enjoy the view outside the car. Haha... In the office, one colleague came up to me and offered to teach me jap twice weekly. I was so surprised and I would be getting free lessons. Yeah!!!

Then work started with 3 consecutive meetings and this stretches all the way to lunchtime. And again, my mind was loaded with so many issues and nothing was done in the morning. But I went for lunch with my sup first. During lunch, I chatted with my sup and finally took the opportunity to ask him for leave approval (cause I wanna attend the Soka U Graduation Ceremony in March). He simply agreed but told me he has to check out the formal procedures first. Hooray! Finally my wish has come through and I shall now start looking at the bus ticket prices to Tokyo and inform my friends in Tokyo!!! After lunch, I worked as usual and without me knowing, it was evening already. Haha... My colleague then came and showed me the movie listings (cause we agreed yesterday to watch a movie). I wanted to watch 'Jumper' when I'm in Singapore but it was not shown then yet. At the same time, March 1st is the movie release for 'Jumper' in Japan which is tomorrow! And also, the ticket is cheaper on the first day of every month at 1000 yen than the usual 1200 yen. Yeah!!! So he will pick me up at 10 plus tmr night to catch the late night movie. :)

8th Week - Monday to Wednesday (250208 - 270208) Start of a New Workplace and Environment!

2008-02-25T23:48:00.004+08:00

It has been a tiring first three days for me. Not only has the cycling time increased from 15 to 40 minutes, there was also the mental stress to cope in the office with new projects and I have to restart all over again. And this is how the story goes...

Monday (250208)

Left my house at 8am to start my cycling trip all the way to my new workplace. Felt very refreshing and excited when I finally reached my destination. There were tons of people queuing up and entering the gate. I looked at the whole place and said to myself,　ワ一、ずばらしいね！
Then i went in and began wandering around to find my new office... :)

For the whole day, I was being briefed on the whole new issues and began to read up more on the specific details. I finished work at 8pm but I waited for my new colleague who finished at 9pm and we walked 10 minutes, chatting to the carpark to get our vehicles, my bicycle and his car... =)

Tuesday (260208)

The morning began with rain. It has not rained for a long time cause all these while it has been snowing. I was caught unprepared as I took my bicycle out but still decided to start cycling. I noticed that along the whole trip, only another person was like me without any umbrella or rain coat on. In the end, it took me 45 minutes to reach (this time I took another route) and my whole face and head was completely wet! My hands and feet were also numb as I walked to the toilet to dry myself up.
Then at work, I began to get involved in more things. And during lunchtime, my sup jio me for lunch at the canteen. The food there was really cheap and I ordered udon and curry katsu for these 2 days! For yesterday and today, we were the first to reach and thus cut down on the waiting time. Haha... Then we chatted about things non-related to work to get to know more about each other and after lunch, the queue in the canteen was so long that the line went down to the first floor! Haha...

And after finishing my work at 7.30pm, I dashed back home to have my dinner before attending my district's dan shibu meeting. This time, there was a 20 minutes video on the England and Scotland SGI and the locals there shared about how they came into faith with this buddhism and their impression of Ikeda Sensei. It touched me as some of the things they shared are quite similar to mine or to the youths as a whole. After this, we talked about 3.16 (Kosen-rufu Day) and the leaders shared the story between Ikeda and Toda Sensei.

After the meeting ended, I felt hungry again and hence went to the mart to buy a pack of biscuits before cycling home under the drizzling rain again. Seriously, I have lost count of the number of times I was drenched today... (The difference between the rain system in Singapore and Japan is that once it starts raining in Japan, it usually lasts the whole day (from what I experienced so far). However, the rain is not as strong as Singapore's, but it is esp cold in winter time! Haha...)

Wednesday (270208)

In the morning, I realised that my hand has shrunk when I wore the watch. I can now squeeue in the next 2 holes! Oh no!!! Haha...

And today was quite an expectionally busy day in the office for me. There were a few meetings going on one after another and I got to travel to other places for meetings. :)
During lunchtime, I got to have lunch at a Korean restaurant with my other colleagues and try out something new... The meal was so full that this is the first time I did not feel hungry at dinnertime! Haha! (And thanks Claire for your extra 3/4 bowl of rice... Hehe...)
Back in the office, work was getting more and more and I simply could not keep up with the mails...
In the end, my mind was mentally drained that I decided to leave office at 7.30pm to have a good rest and start things afresh tmr...

7th Week - Sunday (240208) Visit to the Kaikan & Recce!

2008-02-25T22:43:00.010+08:00

Went to the kaikan at .30am for a YMD meeting. On my way, which takes around 20 minutes by bicycle, there was a sudden snowpour again! Yeah! This time, I came prepared and took out my camera and took some pics so as to compensate for yesterday. =)

All the yamas covered in snow...

Can you see the Genbaku-Dome at the left handside of the background?

Salt placed at the side of bridges/tunnels so as to let people pour on the road to melt the ice. But the disadvantage is that salt will corrode metal in the long run. But reserachers from Hokkaido have came out an alternative using clam shells! Cool!

As I reached the kaikan, I noticed almost all the YMDs are wearing formal wear with coats on. Think I'm one of the 10% that wore jeans that day. Haha... For today's meeting, it was very special, the top YMD leaders of Japan, who are based in Tokyo, came down to Hiroshima to encourage everyone of us prior to 3:16. When I entered the main hall, all the people were sitting in straight columns and I thought I would be sitting alone until Kuroda-san came to me and we sat together. :)

We did a very energetic gongyo and after that, 10 YMDs ran up the stage and performed the fan dance. (I was really touched at that point in time to be able to witness this...) Then the top YMD leader went to the mic and conveyed Sensei's msg and then announced that today's meeting would be published in tomorrow's (Monday's) Seikyo Shinbum! Several YMD leaders took turns to make their speech and each of them were saying in such dynamic tone that one might feel they were shouting with the mic! I could not catch what they are saying but the whole meeting lies on 3:16... And the finale came with Shiota-san (leader in my zone) and 4 other YMD leaders performing another fan dance to end today's meeting.

Carpark near the kaikan especially reserved for Gakkai members...

Seikyo Shimbun located together and just next to the kaikan...

The locals don't call it kaikan. They call it Ikeda Heiwa Hall...

Finally, our magnificant Hiroshima Kaikan...

Gakkai Shop opposite the kaikan...

And with that, I started my recce again and this time using another route to find my new workplace. I took the shortest and easiest path as far as I know and it took me around 20 minutes to reach. I cycled round the whole circumference and to all the gates and the train station. The last time I visited here I thought it was a dream to be able to work here but now the dream came true!!! =) And during this period, there was snow on and off and even with my gloves on, my hands were still numb. At around 2pm, I cycled another route back and on the way, I saw another shopping centre and decided to go in to defrost myself...

The shopping centre is called SATY and the interior looks like our Bugis Junction or Seiyu, with 6 floors. The fifth floor was a cinema, called Warner Brothers MyCal. But the English movies here are a few months behind Singapore, with the Golden Compass slated for release this 1st of March. Haha... But 'L change the world' was being screened for at least 2 weeks already, which I am not interested.

I loitered around and walked all the storeys before heading back to take a good rest and continue learning my jap. I cycled the whole stretch of Peace Bouvlevard and past the Peace Museum which I noticed a new poster showcasing a new photo exhibition named 'Fall of 1945, Summer of 1947'. I will definitely visit there soon and post up the pics for all to see!!! :)

And before I took the lift up my apartment, I went to open my letterbox and in it, I received a postcard from Malcolm in Istanbul! Thanks Mal! :)

I took a nap and ate my dinner before spending the rest of the cosy night studying my japanese and waiting eagerly for my first day in my new office... =)

7th Week - Saturday (230208) Chilly Experience

2008-02-24T06:39:00.006+08:00

Finally attended my second jap lesson after 5 weeks of absent. Haha! Yamasaki sensei was still teaching the class and my name was still there! This time round, I managed to make friends from Italy, Thailand and Germany, with the second half of the class being China people sitting at the other side. Hehe... All of us got to present our points for some simple questions and I managed to learn a few more vocabs. The challenging part about the lesson is that it is being taught completely in japanese! Could not catch all the words that Yamasaki-san was saying but could roughly understand what she wants us to do or the terms she wanna explain to us... :)

Me and my international friends at the Jap class...

After the class ended at 3pm, I started the recce to my new workplace. But before this, I cycled to the kaikan shop to look for some postcards. The kaikan shop was located just opposite the kaikan, at the other side of Hiroshima Eki and this is the second time I'm exploring that place. Everywhere looked very new and fresh to me. I cycled in and out of the small alleys and narrow streets instead of the main road and without me knowing, I was somewhere near the kaikan! Hehe...

As I entered, I introduced myself to the staff and asked for the postcards. But they told me there was no cards for sale. Hence, I crossed the road and entered the kaikan and inside, there's another shop selling books and again, there are no postcards. Haha... But I noticed that there's a small corner selling English books and I saw the English version of the NHR and 'The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra'! (But let me finish up reading the books in my room first. :)) While browsing through the books, I heard a strong chanting sound from the corner at the other side. I went to see and noticed it was a chanting room! I felt very tempted and decided to go in and chant! I think the room was 60% the size of our Pine room in SCC and it feels like someone's house with the tatami mats and not like our rooms back in Singapore! I chanted for 20 minutes before leaving and getting on with my recce.

When I came out of the kaikan at 4.15pm, it started snowing! But anyway, I still cycled and about 30 minutes later, I saw this very big shopping centre and detoured in as I saw my favourite supermarket - Jusco. This shopping centre is called Diamond City and the building structure is similar to our IMM, just that it is bigger with more facilities. The only bad thing about Japan for now is that there are no food courts. Everywhere you see are individual restaurants selling only their specialised food. I only explored the supermarket and brought my coming week's groceries in Aeon Mall (similar to our Giant). Will explore the whole shopping the next time. :) As I left the mart, to my surprise, it was snowing very heavily! This was the first time I'm witnessing such a heavy snowpour and it seemed like a snow storm to me. Haha... I took out my camera and wanted to take some shots but arrghh! Low Batt! I forgot to charge my camera!!! This might be the first and last time I'm seeing this in Japan and no pictures for it! Sianz... But anyway, I went to get my bicycle and cycled in the pouring snow...

I cycled for another one hour until I met a deadend. It's an upslope and there's no space for cyclist to travel with the narrow single lane. So I turned back and decided to try another route. The snow storm was on and off, turning from small to heavy and back so many times. At some instances, the snow was so heavy that visibility was very poor with the snow keep on hitting my eyes. My whole jacket was like 60% covered with snow and I kept sweeping off the snow on it, if not i might become a snowman. Haha... But the feeling was good to have the opportunity to cycle and appreciate the falling snow at the same time. At least I won't go back to Singapore with regrets (just that no photos to show for it).

But now it was already dark at 6 plus and after around 3 hours of cycling and without my gloves on (cause I did not bring them out as the afternoon then was still warm), my hands were numb and I could not really feel and control them. At one point, I stopped to tie my shoelaces but my hands were so stiff that I could not even bend, let alone tieing my laces!!! Hence I just slipped the shoelaces inside my shoes and decided to go home straight.

The beautiful snow scene outside my apartment...

The heavy snowpour throughout the night...

It took me around 30 minutes to defrost my hands back in my apartment and during this time, I could not even write! I can just hold a pen and simply could not write anything!!! But after that, my hands returned to normal and I had a warm meal to keep myself cosy in my room. What a chilly experience it was today!!!

7th Week - Wednesday to Friday (200208 - 220208)

2008-02-21T00:37:00.007+08:00

Finally got my basics back. But will still continue to learn and improve my jap as much as possible. The more you learn, the more addicted it becomes. Haha... And this is the update to what I have done for the past few days...

Wednesday (200208) Dinner and Karaoke

The weather is getting warmer and warmer. The afternoon's temp is now 9 degrees. But life still goes on in the office but there's some major shifting around which I will be affected too. :)

Then at 6pm, Claire and I cycled to Hiroshima Eki to meet up with our senior and his friends and colleagues. We then went to eat in another yaki tori restaurant and then went on to sing karaoke. I sang jap songs initially but gave up in the end and revert back to my english songs. The more i sing, the more i feel high. I even sang Tokyo Drift! Haha...

We sang till 11.10pm before cycling for 30 minutes back home.

Thursday (210208)

Has confirmed the taking of another project in my work. Went to another site to attend a briefing. I will be shifting office from next week! But will still come back to my existing office quite often. Yeah!!! (Claire is still based in the current office). Now need to recce on how to get to my new workplace over the weekend, which might take around 45 minutes by cycling (not sure yet...). I might be the first intern to be able to work in 2 places. Yeah!!!

Friday (220208)

The afternoon temp was 11 degrees. I can finally go out without my jacket! Haha!
Was issued a laptop from the compamy and transferred all my documents into it as I will be commuting between 2 places next week. Wow, I'll be cycling with so many barang barang on my bike from next week, with my bag, laptop bag and bento box. Haha... Just hope that I'll be steady enough when cycling...

Then after work, went to the bank to update my bankbook. Was at a loss initially cause this is the first time I'm looking at the bank machines. But thank goodness that the machine's has an option for English. Pressed it and inserted my book in. And Yeah! The reimbursement for the air tickets and last month's salary has been credited into my account! Hooray!!!

Then cycled back to my apartment to have my dinner, washed my laundry and all the bento boxes before heading to my bed at 10.30pm for an early sleep. (Have not been resting enough with the weekday work and weekend outings. Need to make up for the loss in sleep). =)

7th Week - Tuesday (190208) Work In Progress. Sorry for any Inconvenience Caused...

2008-02-19T19:26:00.003+08:00

Hey Guys, I shall stop blogging for 3 days till end of this Friday. Seriously need to spend more time brushing up my jap... Will only update if there's something very impt. If not, また　今週　の土曜日！！！

7th Week - Monday (180208) Start of a Busy Week!

2008-02-19T00:39:00.004+08:00

With the chinese new year holidays officially over, it is now time for everyone to get back to their work and this means I will only get busier. Haha!

Nothing much to report today and stayed till 7pm before accompanying Claire to the shopping centre to ask for the update of our internet. Apparently, this was the twelve time Claire went to see them and the result was still not good. We told the person-in-charge we did not receive any letter which they said will deliver to our letterbox last week. And he was busy calling a lot of people which we have no clue of. After waiting for 45 minutes, he got a confirmation and the answer was to come back tmr evening! Cause he said someone will call Claire tmr afternoon to give her a number so that she can then provide this person as proof of something, which we don find any logic or whatever. Towards the end, we are not listening to his explanation as we were shacked out of the whole long process and decided to settle tmr... Haiz...

6th Week - Sunday (170208) Science Centre, Food Sampling and Dinner

2008-02-18T00:33:00.004+08:00

Went to meet Claire at her bakery shop at 10am and together went to Science Centre which is just opposite the peace park. Admission is free and I don't feel excited looking at the exhibits anymore cause it's about the same as Singapore's science centre except smaller and lesser displays. Went to the 3rd floor to watch this 'omni-threatre' show and we noticed that foreign students studying in Japan, tickets are FOC! (Though we're not exchange students, Claire managed to bargain her way through and got us in for free!) But once the show started, it was not the same standard as Singapore's and we were eating our sandwiches inside listening to the japanese conversation and we dozed off... zzz...

Stayed for a bit more before leaving at 1.30pm to cycle back home for our bento lunch instead cause we were full after eating the egg sandwich in the 'omni-threatre'. haha... And after resting for a while, we left at 3 plus to the SOGO Departmental store to shop at the 2 basement levels. Heard from our colleagues that these 2 floors provide the most samples! Hence we began walking around and dashed to the counter that offered samples. Think we tried many different kinds of samples, from chocolate to snacks to tako fishball, potato, fried fish, pudding, vege, meat, cake and sweets. Haha! We were quite full with all these 'rubbish' in our stomachs and at 6 plus cycled to one of our friend's house to meet up with our other friends for dinner.

Upon meeting, they drove us to a shopping centre which is about 20 minutes away from our house and entered this chinese restaurant. Because Claire and I were still full, we did not join them for Shabu Shabu (streamboat). Instead we sat at another table with one of our friends eating a normal meal and chatted until 9 plus. We left the place at 10.30pm and back in the house, Claire cooked her own Okonomiyaki (which she calls it okonoclaireki or whatever she wants it... haha...) for our lunch tmr... :)

6th Week - Friday & Saturday (150208 - 160208) One Month Anniversary in Office and my 2nd Zadankai!

2008-02-17T01:10:00.010+08:00

160208 (Sat)

Worked as usual in the office today, with more readings and notes to read... :)

At 6.30pm, went to Mensing-san's house instead of the usual Kotake for my second zadankai. Her house was really packed with people when we entered!!! (There should be at least 30 people inside her house. :))

First up was the MDs. They gave a quiz to the audience on Singapore since Claire and I were the special guests. Hashimoto-san asked about whether Singapore was a republic, a communist or a kingdom, the Singapore flag, Singapore's population as well as Singapore's national anthem.

Think there were some qns that the audience don know...

Next was the WDs. They presented a song to everyone and the tune was very lovely...

WDs presenting a song...

Then came the YMDs turn. Firstly, Atsu-san dragged me up to introduce myself and Claire and asked about my feelings towards Gakkai in Japan. I spoke in english for this part and Kondo-san and Claire helped me to translate in jap. Then they went on to share about Febuary's struggle and Sensei's shakubuku efforts when he was a young district leader.

After this came the YWDs part. They also gave a quiz about fruits fact and apparently, I do not know a lot of them. haha...

Then it was my turn. I stood up and shared with everyone about Mrs Ikeda's orchid that the Orchid Assocation of Singapore named after her in japanese (Thanks Kiyo for the translation... hehe...) But I have to apologise to them for my slow and word by word reading... Haha... In the end, I presented 30 sets of SSA Mrs Ikeda's postcards and 10 SSA notebooks to everyone and passed it to Hashimoto-san first.

Me with the YMDs and MDs...

Claire with the YWDs and WDs...

Me with the WDs and their children...

After the meeting, which ended at 8.45pm (meetings usually starts at 7pm here), Hashimoto-san and wife brought us to eat yaki tori again. Yeah!!! We got to meet one of the waitress whose boyfriend is a japanese but is now working in Singapore!!! She spoke fluent english and helped us translate some of the things that Hashimoto-san had difficulty expressing in english. I think you will wanna puke when you read the following but the waitress told us that I looked like a typical japanese. Hontoni??? Even Hashimoto agreed... Haha... We chatted and laughed till around 10pm before we went home...

Back in the apartment, I was transfering some of the cooking utensils between my room and Claire's cause she need them more than me and I need the rice which was in her room. At the same time, she was cooking lunch for tmr and it includes chicken breast meat, cabbage and fried rice. She also prepared egg sandwich! (What a good spread!) We were preparing to go to a children's science centre tmr and watch something like our omni-threatre in Singapore and decided to have our lunch there... :)

The ingredients for the egg sandwich...

Looks and taste nice!!!

At around 12 midnight, we finished cooking and I headed back to my room for a shower and some sleep...

150208 (Friday)

Nope, there's no celebration for my one month stay in office (and I don't think no one knows about it. Haha...) Today was quite special as my collague brought us to the Mazda Plant to attend our training course. The whole place was so huge with so many different facilities and people. Too bad no photos for it as it's a restricted area...

This can of dried durian has been in the office for 1 month now and nobody eats it. So I took the whole can with me. Haha!!!

As it melts in your mouth, it tastes and smell just like the original!

Reached back to office at 4pm plus and continued doing my work. Stayed in office till around 8pm and decided to recce my way to the airport! (this idea just popped into my mind suddenly!) It took me 35 minutes to cycle from my office (past my apartment) to the airport. Upon reaching, I was disappointed to find out that it was closed and the airport was really really small! Maybe it was the same size (including the airfields) as our Terminal 1's building. Now I'm starting to miss Changi Airport. Hehe... There was nothing much to see and the whole area was very quiet, like a dead town. Hence, I cycled back just after 5 minutes and slowly explored the surrounding areas on my way back... :)

6th Week - Thursday (140208) Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T22:58:00.010+08:00

Went to YMCA in the morning to attend company's quarterly's meeting. My sup gave a presentation but it's in japanese. Had to use a translator kit to understand the contents of the whole meeting... Even met my senior there but just had a brief chat after the meeting as he rushed back to the office...

Went YMCA to attend company meeting...

Peace exhibit outside YMCA...

During lunchtime, Claire jioed me to go to the shopping centres around our office to look at the Valentine's Day chocolates. (Met our colleagues at the ground floor and had to turn them down for the lunch walk!) During the walk walk, I saw so many different types of chocolates and cakes than I have seen in Singapore! The japanese are very particular about packaging and everything was wrapped in beautiful boxes!!! We then saw some counters offering some chocolates to sample and we straightaway tried it. It was really so nice that we just kept on looking for anywhere that's offering samples! Hehe...

This cake is too good to be real! Haha...

Can't bear to eat this up right?

1 slice cost you S$11...

Trying out all the different chocolate samples!!! =)

We shopped the cakes and chocolates section of 3 departmental stores before meeting by chance one of our colleagues from another department. She wanted to treat us to some cakes and told us to choose. In the end, I chose a strawberry creampuff and she paid for us before going to buy herself lunch as she got a meeting at 1pm. What a generous lady!!! We continued to walk for a while before returning back to office.

Heart-shaped strawberries!!!

This melon cost S$270. Crazy...

Wow! Just look at the pastry...

A strawberry cream puff from my colleague. :)

Then at 5pm plus, another colleague from another department gave me a slice of cake to celebrate Valentine's Day! Wow! I was so surprised cause I don't usually celebrate this occasion in Singapore but I could felt their warm-heartedness and thoughtfulness in saving one slice for me. =)

Received another slice of cake from another colleague!!! Yummy!

Then towards the end of the day, I received another work assignment to do for this Sat (cause last Monday was a public holiday here in Japan and so we need to make up on the following Sat). Think this assignment will keep me busy for the next week or so. Haha...

I continued my work and stayed in the office till 8.15pm to prepare for tomorrow's morning meeting as well as reading up some notes for tomorrow's training course before heading back home to rest and do other stuff...

And before I forget, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY PEOPLE!!!

6th Week - Wednesday (130208) Snowed the whole night!

2008-02-13T21:20:00.005+08:00

Woke up today to find a pleasant surprise. It snowed yesterday night and the area around my apartment was covered in snow! Hooray!!! Quickly went to take a few pics of the scenery outside my room as it is rare to see my place covered with snow. :)

House roofs and cars were all covered with snow!

Snow on my balcony and bits of it on my shirts! Yeah!!!

Beautiful backdrop of snow-covered mountain within my balcony view...

When we cycled to work, we saw the panel on the building displaying the temp as -1 degrees! Cool!!! And along the way, as I cycled on the bridge, I saw the Atomic Bomb Dome and its surrounding area covered with a bit of snow. I could not resist the temptation and immediately went to take some pictures of it first. Haha... After 10 minutes of photo-taking, we quickly cycled to our office. :)

The landmark of Hiroshima - The Atomic Bomb Dome

aka Genbaku Domu...

Area surrounding the Dome...

This bike was frozen over the night. :)

In the office, Claire told me that her rashes worsened. She was scratching all over with her whole body was red and complained that she could not take it! Hence I went to inform my colleague and asked her to check out on Claire. After lunch, Claire went to see a doctor and the fee was around 7000 yen (ard S$90)! But she can claim it back from insurance. :) She told me that all the doctors here are specialised and one must look for a skin specialised doc if he has rashes and different specialist ranging from headaches, flu, stomachaches, etc. Interesting! Haha... But after applying the doc's cream, she is fine for now, which is good...

Then for the rest of the day, I just did my work as usual and felt very tired after the end of the day. Did some laundry and washing when I reached home and after that had an early sleep...

6th Week - Tuesday (120208) An Omiyage (お土産) Gift

2008-02-13T00:12:00.000+08:00

Finally returned back to office after 3 days of break. Continued reading my notes until one of my colleagues came to my table and gave me an omiyage gift. It was a box of mochi!!! Yummy! My colleague went to Okayama Prefecture (岡山県) over the long weekend and bought this speciality. There was a story behind this mochi and she explained to me a bit before rushing back to do her work. She sent me a link to read up on the story and if you are interested, you can go wikipedia and type 'momotaro'. This is the story behind the mochi... :) But looking at the package, it was so nice that I don wanna open it. But after looking at the expiry date, which is the end of this month, I had no choice but to open it up to try... Hehe...

お土産 Gift!!!

Packs of Mochi...

Delicious Mochi!!!

In the late afternoon, she also sent me a link of the places of interest in Hiroshima and upon browsing, I discovered that Maroon 5 is coming to Hiroshima to perform on the 15th March!!! But looking at the ticket price, it's 7000yen for standing and 8oooyen for sitting. Think I'll just watch their videos from Youtube. Haha...

When I knocked off from work, I suddenly felt very cold when I stepped out of the building. It was 6 degrees in the morning, 8 degrees in the afternoon but 0 degrees at 7pm!!! I never felt so cold in so many days as I cycled back home. My ears start to feel numb again and I was shivering all the way home. But I like this kind of feeling. Haha... :)

After eating my dinner and resting, Atsu-san called me at 9.10pm to go for YMD meeting. I thought I’m sitting in a car, so I wore slippers and did not bring my gloves. In the end, I realized that we are cycling to kotake. When we reached there, my hands and legs were so cold that it felt painful as I cycled against the cold wind...

During the meeting, we watched a 20 minutes video on the kosen-rufu movement in the chugoku region of Honshu, which includes Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Shimane Prefectures. After that, each of us shared our own thoughts or encounters that we have for the past few days before a senior YMD leader, Yamamoto-san summed up and gave encouragement to everyone. After this, we left Kotake and to my surprise, it was snowing!!! But it wasn't heavy and only bits of snow fell occasionally. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it even with my hands and feet numb on my way back. Haha...

When I reached home, I called Claire to inform her of the snow. She knew it on her way back and instead asked me for prickly heat. I asked her for the reason and she said she got rashes. Oh no! After we hung up, I went down and cycled to the convenience store to find something for her to relieve the itch cause I think that the people here don use prickly heat. I think I searched till the 4th convenience store before finding a small bottle of mendothol and it's the last one. I bought it straight and went back and passed it to her. Hopefully, she will be fine by tmr morning... =)

Then I went to settle my admin stuff and do a bit of this and that before finally going to sleep to get some energy for tmr's morning meeting...

6th Week - Monday (110208) Visit to ASA Zoo (安佐動物園)

2008-02-11T23:13:00.000+08:00

Claire and I visited the zoo today. We left our apartment at 9.30am and walked to the bus stop opposite Sogo to take the bus to Asa Zoo. It was a 50 minutes ride and the fare was 440 yen! The unique thing about the bus is you board at the back door and alight at the front door. When you board, you have to look at the electronic board at the front of the bus which shows a lot of stages and you note which stage you board it. The fare will keep increasing as the distance goes longer and you pay according to that stage's fare.

We reached the zoo at around 11.30am and Claire noticed something on the entrance notice board. It states that students under 18 yrs old and foreign students with their ID pass get to enter for free! Yeah!!! We presented our IDs and got a free entry. This helped us save up 500 yen! =)

At the entrance of Asa Zoo...

This zoo is pretty small compared to Singapore's standards and we really take our time to finish walking the whole compound. The animals are also pretty much the same as in Singapore zoo, the only difference being there's red panda and the moose. There's a children world here and we queued up with the little children to get to play with the guinea pigs. Haha!!! Overall, I feel that this zoo is more oriented towards children and not like Singapore's, who targets foreign visitors (think we're the only foreigners there that day... Hehe...)

Cat and Dog Skeleton...

Our picnic lunch for today!!!

What a big wool ball!!!

This sheep is soooo cute!

Posing with the innocent-looking guinea pigs...

Then at 4.45pm, we left the zoo and took the 45 minutes bus home...

5th Week - Sundayv(100208) Visit to Miyajima Oyster Festival!!!!

2008-02-10T20:33:00.000+08:00

Today's trip to Miyajima was filled with laughter and funny incidents that I will never forget for quite some time. And this is how the story goes...

Supposed to wake up at 6am but instead overslept and woke up at 6.45am. Started our cycling trip at 8am and it was a 2 hrs 10 minutes cycle to Miyajima. There was nothing much to see along the way cause the shops were still not open yet. But the weather was good with the sunny sun keeping the temperatures warm. Along the 1.5 hours mark, Claire and I were caught by the Traffic Police for dangerously crossing the road with the red man still on! They were broadcasting in a loudspeaker and initially I thought they were some advertisements until I saw the police van driving past us and telling us to stop! We did as instructed and they asked us to give them our foreign ID card. They copied down our particulars with our bike's registration number and told us to cycle safely the next time. Then we requested taking photos with them to comemorate this special incident and they agreed! Hope we don't receive the fines from them! Haha...

Taking a photo with the TP who caught us... :)

With this, we laughed and cycled all the way to Miyajima-guchi. Upon reaching the ferry terminal, I was shocked to see the endless stream of people queueing up for the ferry. I did not expect the oyster festival to attract so many visitors. But I think all of them wanted to have a taste of the oysters and so were we! We bought the tics and it was a 5 to 10 minutes ride, with the whole ferry packed with people that we had to stand and take pictures of the scenery... After reaching, we sat in the station to eat some snacks as our stomachs are growling with the long cycling. Then when we came out of the station, a whole battalion of visitors were queueing up in front of the main square. The oyster festival was set up there and there were a lot of food stalls selling stuff from fresh oysters to other peripheral items to traditional performances and dances. We went around all the stalls exploring and taking pictures and we bought some snacks to eat. Then we headed out of the main square and to the 大鳥居 (otori gate), which is the landmark of Miyajima.

The endless stream of people queueing for the oyster food fare...

This is how oysters are being bbqed...

Taking a pic with the Miyajima welcome ambassador...

Along the way, we saw a lot of deers and Claire was very fascinated! (Think she really has a fetish for animals. Hehe...) A special feature of this island is that deers are free to roam and visitors can feed them!!! But I think they were so used to human contact that they will just come to you if they saw food in your hands. We kept on taking pictures of the deers, from the young to those with horns and we discovered that they liked to eat orange skins! (Claire brought a lot of oranges with her cause the pastry shop which she works in gave her a lot of oranges and some pies.) We ate some oranges and played with the deers using the orange skins until we are sick of it and continued our walk. Along the way, we visited some souvenir shops and when we reached the otori gate, we spent a considerable amount of time taking pictures of this gate and after this decided to find a good spot to sit down and have our lunch. We really liked the weather as there was sunshine with air-con conditions. Yeah! =)

This deer simply don't care what Claire is doing to it...

My turn to pose with the same deer...

The deers here will do all means to get their food. :)

Nope, no more oranges!!!

Presenting the Otorii Gate of Miyajima!!!

A close-up of me and the gate...

After lunch, we continued our exploration up to the forest before u-turning back to the shops to try out the fresh oysters and Miyajima's famous food, Momijimanju.

After comparing the prices of the different oyster shops, there was not much differences and we just queued up at one of the shops to have a try. (FYI, 2 BBQ oysters cost 400yen or around S$5.30) We also bought momijimanju, which i chose orange flavour (90yen) and Claire choosing cream and green tea flavours. And with this, as we're heading to the ferry terminal, we discovered that it was low-tide and the otori-gate was accessible by foot!!! A lot of people were heading to the gate to take pictures and we decided to go too! This gate was originally built on land but after decades, it was now submerged in water. Only low tides (which we just discovered) were we able to walk to it and touch it! Upon reaching the gate, we discovered a lot of coins in the soil surrounding the gate. They might be wishing coins thrown by other people and we saw some 50yen and 10yen coins and decided to pick them up! Haha!!! Think we collected 300yen and we shall use it to buy biscuits for tomorrow's zoo trip. =)

The process of making Momijimanju...

Our 2 fresh oysters! Yummy!!!

Yeah! The Otorii Gate being accessible during low tide!!!

With this, it was almost time to head home. We finsished the rest of the oranges and fed the orange skins to the deers. (The deers kept on following Claire with the peels until she was terrified of them! Haha...) We took 1 hr 45 minutes to cycle back to Tokaichi and both of us were so tired and our legs trembling that we agreed to take a bus to the zoo tmr...

5th Week - Friday and Saturday (080208 - 090208) One Month Anniversary!

2008-02-09T23:25:00.000+08:00

Time really flies. I have officially stayed in Hiroshima for one month and I have made a couple of friends both from my workplace and Soka Gakkai. I will continue to improve myself and search for new and exciting experiences!!!

080208 – Friday

Nothing much to mention today on the second day of lunar new year. Only significant thing was attending my first YMD ddmk meeting at night. Chanted for half an hour before the leaders shared about the NHR from the Seikyo Shimbun. This time, Singapore was actually being mentioned in Sensei’s installments!!! They said Sensei might have written this article last Wednesday, 060208 and it was published as a continuation of Singapore pioneering kosenrufu efforts in the 1960s. We talked about this article and an English version of it will be on the way. =)

090208 – Saturday

Went to meet Kondo-san at 9am outside a convenience store this morning. We agreed last week that we will be teaching each other jap and English respectively and hence leading to today’s meet-up. Firstly, we went through a list of Kanji characters that I printed out and then went on to practise my prounication from another material of mine. After this, it was Kondo-san’s turn and he wanted to learn Chinese. He never learn before and the moment I told him there are 4 tones to each word, he nearly fainted! Haha… But slowly, he wrote down the list of words he wanted to know in Chinese and I’ll translate and teach him how to pronounce. After that, it was my turn again and Kondo-san helped me translate the NHR from the Seikyo Shinbun. Although I can read, but I don understand the words and meaning from the passage. So he patiently helped me to decipher one paragraph by one paragraph. Very patient guy!!!

View taken outside Kondo-san's apartment

Going through the NHR from the Seikyo Shimbun.

After this, it was already 12.45pm and intiailly, I wanted to attend my jap lesson over at the Hiroshima International Centre which starts at 1pm. But I’ll surely be late. Hence I decided not to go and have okonomiyaki lunch with Kondo-san instead... :)

Okonomiyaki Lunch!!!

After that, I cycled for half an hour to Jusco supermart to buy the 88 yen bread and other food stuff before going back to my apartment to sleep for 2 hours. After this, Atsu-san called me and together we sat on oda-san’s car to the kaikan. This time, there’s another Sensei’s speech and members from USA, India and the Philippines were present. The speech finished at 9pm and Oda-san drove us home. On the way back, Oda-san mentioned that he was only 2 years old when his mother was killed in the atomic-bomb. She was then 27 years old. This is the first real hand encounter that I have with an atomic bomb victim and a forgotten story among the people here in this cosmopolitan city…

When I came back, I rested for a while before Claire called me. She has also just reached back from a cake shop she volunteered working for free in. And she said she don’t have to worry about food cause the staff over there always gave her cakes, chocolates and other pastries to sample! So good! She brought back a tuppleware full of pastries and together with the biscuits and snacks I bought in the afternoon, we will be going to Miyajima for a picnic and celebrate CNY at the same time tmr! Yeah! =) [FYI, we swopped the zoo and Miyajima dates cause the oyster festival in Miyajima is only available for this weekend.]
We discussed and chatted for a while before heading back to our rooms to have an early sleep for tmr’s long cycling trip to Miyajima…

5th Week -　水曜日　と　木曜日　(060208 - 070208) 中国人の新年　おめでとう　ございます！！！

2008-02-07T02:51:00.000+08:00

皆さんは　お元気ですか？Happy Lunar New Year!!! This year is the Year of the Rat which is MY YEAR and I'm missing it... Have to wait for another 12 years to come again!!! haha...

Chinese New Year Eve
It's pretty much the same here. Working till the normal evening hours. Tried to think of something to do in the evening. There's no chinatown in Hiroshima. Only Yokohama and Kobe throughout the whole of Japan has it. If I'm in Tokyo, I'll definitely take the shinkansen to Yokohama! But too bad, I'm so far off from these 2 cities, no chance to visit there. Then I thought of watching a movie. But after checking the timings, majority of the cinemas' last show were at 6pm plus! Can you believe it? And anyway, the ticket prices are more than 1200yen, which is out of my daily budget, so it's off... Therefore, I just cycled back home as usual, ate my dinner and watched a soccer match between Japan and Thailand, which Japan eventually won 4-1. Then I went to sleep after a long studying day in the office and woke up at 11 plus to send some e-mails and watched a movie on my laptop before going to sleep again...

Chinese New Year DAY
The first thing in the morning, I received a morning call from Claire wishing me Gong Xi Fa Cai. This is one of the few times that she actually called me. Usually I will call her to make sure she's out of bed and this time round, due to the "late night movie", I can't wake up. Haha... But after that, life's the same in the office, no mood at all. I don even feel anything special and just work as usual...
Then after work, I rushed back home cause the postman will deliver the bank atm card to my house. When I opened the bank account a few weeks ago, I only received a bankbook. The lady said they will send the card to my house in 2 weeks time. And last week, since I was working, they dropped a notice in my letterbox saying I have to collect at the post office. And when I checked it out with my colleagues, my sup helped me call the post office to deliver to my apartment from 7-9pm today. But when I reached home just now, it was 7.40pm and I received a note saying they came at 7.29pm! Sianz... So I just switched on the TV and ate my dinner until 8.45pm, the postman called my room! Lucky sia!!! Hence I went down , signed and finally have my own atm card!!! Now is just the internet that is the only thing outstanding...

5th Week - Tuesday (050208) Planning for Long Weekend!

2008-02-05T18:21:00.000+08:00

There's nothing much to do in the office today because of the CNY break for other countries. And since next Monday is a national holiday, called Kenkoku-kinen-no-hi (National Foundation Day), we decided to plan ourselves some activities. I told Claire about cycling to the zoo, called Asa Zoo, which is 15km away from the city centre on Sunday and on Monday cycle to Miyajima as I read from the net that there is a oyster festival on that day. So we went to find and print out the map for the zoo and check out the prices for entrance fees, ferry services and so on... Hopefully, both of us will be free for those 2 days and the weather is good and we should start our cycling as early as 7am. Haha!

Just before work ends, my sup told me he will be having his off-in-lieu tmr and instructed me to read online training materials. When I saw the contents, I'm very happy as it was related to my course of study and also a lot of other things which is in my area of interest that my school doesn't cover. I remembered last time asking my prof about the limited scope of our contents and he told me the school is compressing everything in 4 years. So there's no way to include all relevant mechanical courses in it. Therefore, given this golden opportunity, I shall make full use of it and "mug" the whole day in office tmr, provided no one calls me up... :)

After work, I went to the Internet Cafe to type this post up as I'm fed up with the connectivity in my room as well as the chill winds blowing into my room. Hehe... After that, I went to attend my weekly Dan Shibu meeting...

5th Week - Monday (040208)

2008-02-04T23:52:00.000+08:00

Sorry that I posted this one day later. Nothing much happened throughout today but at night, was spending more than 1 hour trying to access Internet but there's always no signal. Therefore decided to spend the rest of the night more meaningfully by studying my jap and reading up my NHR. Halfway through, I turned on my TV and saw Kimura (木村） and other SMAP members hosting their own variety show. I realised Kimura is part of SMAP only when I came to Japan and I always saw him appear on TV so frequently... He also got quite a few advertisements (3 so far from what I noticed) from Gatsby to Toyota Corolla Fielder to Cellphone advertisements. Is he really that popular? But anyway, I'm not interested and went back to resume my reading...

4th Week - Sunday (030208) Played Ground Golf and Explored 宮島口!

2008-02-03T17:36:00.000+08:00

Did not managed to meet Angel yesterday night. It was also raining in Iwakuni (Yamaguchi Prefecture which he is staying) and he decided to postpone our meet-up to some other days...

This morning, I went to meet Hashimoto-san outside his apartment at 8.30am and he brought me to watch him play ground golf in an elementary school (広瀬小学校).

View taken outside Hashimoto-san's house

Wow! Snow at the mountain top!!!

I was surprised with 2 things when I'm in the school. Firstly, 90% of the 100 plus people were senior citizens and secondly, he has registered for me to play in his team!!! Haha!!! There are 3 members in each team and the rules are similar to golf, ie to get the lowest number of hits possible to put the ball in the hole. This was the first time I'm playing this type of sports and I must really say, the senior citizens are very very good and accurate!!! This sport is easy to pick up and just have to get the initial feeling of hitting the ball right. I enjoyed myself and Hashimoto-san and I were always teasing each other whenever we went over-par. Hehe... But in the end, as expected, I was the last in my team (and Hashimoto-san got 2 hole-in-ones!) but we got 13th place out of 20 teams! That's quite good for me. Haha... All of us got some consolation prizes and at 12.15pm, Hashimoto-san and I left for home.

Hashimoto-san at his serious time...

Us competing with the other team...

Everyone was a winner!!!

I rested for a few minutes, ate my lunch and went out at 1.10pm. For the whole of today, Claire was not with me cause in the morning, she went to Internet Cafe to blog and chat with her boyfriend. Then later in the late afternoon, she went to one of our colleague's house to bake cookies. So I'm all alone today. Hence I decided to start another recce trip and this time, I will cycle to 宮島口 (Miyajima-guchi). 宮島 is a popular japanese tourist attraction and one of the top 10 sites to visit for the whole of Japan and it's in Hiroshima! So how can I not go and have a look? (But for this time round, I will only stop at the main island and not take the ferry to Miyajima Island) Hashimoto-san warned me in the morning that it takes around 3 hours by bicycle to reach there but still, I wanna carry on with my plan as the weather in the afternoon is sunny and good. Hence I started cycling at 1.15pm and I followed the tram's tracks at first. But along the way, the tracks and the road got diverted and I just cycled based on my gut's feeling... Along the way, I saw a few train stations (something like MRT and not tram station) and other shops that I have never seen before (I will explore these places in the future. :)) But the most unforgettable one was that while cycling for 1.5 hours, I actually saw another Gakkai shop whose name is コタケ too! Hence I went in and talked to the lady for a while and took a picture of the outside before I continued my exploration...

コタケ店 at 五日市...

The route seems like eternity and I just kept on cycling and cycling. It took me another one hour before I finally reached!!! Hooray!!! The time then was 3.45pm and I went around the train station taking pictures. Then I stopped at the ferry terminal to have my break for 20 minutes. As I rested, I ate some biscuits and looked at the beautiful view of the opposite island which is Miyajima. I will definitely be there within this two months to try their famous BBQ oyster, which is in season soon. =)

Miyajima Island. Can you see the red shrine at the left? It's a famous landmark for this Island. :)

Just nice that a patch of dark clouds came by and I took this shot...

Ferry Services to Miyajima. It can accomodate cars as well...

At 4.15pm, I made my way back. As I just started, I saw the road sign and it states 32km to Hiroshima! No wonder it took me so long to reach!!! So I should be cycling around 64km in total and it sounds like a bicycle marathon. Haha! On my way back, my legs start to feel the tiredness and began to feel like jelly. I had to make a few stops along the way to take a 5 minutes break before carrying on again. This time, I noticed that the sun sets at 5.45pm and it starts to get darker and colder. This was really a long long stretch of road and I wondered maybe I should take the 電車(train) next time instead of cycling. (unless Claire wants to try out! Haha... For the train, there are only 6 stations and it costs 320yen for a one-way trip.) And for the return trip, it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes and I'm very happy to be back in my area. It was then 6.25pm and as I parked my bicycle and walked to my apartment, I was walking like my legs would collapse anytime! I cycled 4 hours and 40 minutes in total but don think I broke my record yet. (My record is still my favourite night cycling which I did during recess weeks. :)) But anyway, I rested in my apartment, ate my dinner and read up a bit before having an early night...

4th Week - Saturday (020208) Grocery Shopping!

2008-02-02T13:07:00.000+08:00

Came out at 9.30am today to check out the prices of the groceries in the cheap mart near our apartment. This shop is called Mama-chen and it opens from 9am to 6pm on weekdays and hence we don have the chance to visit it on weekdays. But when we reached there, the shop assistant told us it was only open from 10am on Sats and closed on Suns. WhaT? Hence we decided to cycle to another mart which I discovered during my recce trip last Thursday to Hiroshima Port and postpone the morning jap class (which starts at 10am) to the 1pm afternoon class.

It took us 30 minutes to reach that mart, called Aeon and along the way, we stopped by 2 more other marts. We bought a lot of stuff, from oranges to bananas (I deprived of fruits!!!) to jam to 4 loaves of bread and even 10kg of rice!!! (It costs 2480yen = S$32.60 for 10kg and is the cheapest after all the marts we have visited!). We had to tie the rice to the back of my bicycle and cycled quite a distance home! Haha! We were so unstable in our bicycles (with rice at my back and bread on my front and Claire has a lot of dangling stuff on her bicycle too! that) that we thought we might fall off anytime... Hehe... It took us 40 minutes to reach back to our apartment in the small drizzle.

Beautiful flowers isn't it?

Yeah! Finally found the 88yen bread!

Bought 4 loaves of bread at one go!

Cycling back with all our "Barang Barang"...

But since we came back at 1pm and drenched, we decided to skip today's jap class. Oops! As I rested, Claire cooked our lunch and this time she prepared vege, 2 days of seasoned chicken meat and onion-egg! Delicious! It looks like a Singapore style mixed vege rice and she prepared a bigger serving for me this time like the amount I usually have when I'm in Singapore! Yeah! :)

Very filling lunch!!!

After lunch, it was 3pm and we were meeting Hashimoto-san and wife for dinner later at 7pm. In between, Angel called my apartment phone, saying he will reach Hiroshima City at midnight tonight. (Cause he's staying in Yamaguchi Prefecture and will come Hiroshima often on weekends to visit his friend who opens a restaurant). I agreed to meet him at midnight at the Genbaku-dome (A-bomb dome) to collect my photos and he will bring me to a pub or something to chat...

4th Week - Friday (010208) Start of a New Month！

2008-02-01T19:47:00.000+08:00

Was very busy in office today. So busy that I had no time for lunch and had to settle for 2 slices of bread, and so was my sup! He ate sandwiches instead of going out for lunch!!! We finally settled our stuff at 4 plus before going for meeting at 5.30pm...

Had to treat my bento lunch as dinner and ate it at 7pm in the office. Then I went back to rest before attending Dan Shibu daimokukai at 9.30pm...

But when I came out of the lift, I saw a notice from my letterbox. It's a note left behind by Kuroda-san saying that today's chanting meeting was cancelled and he will come again next week. I was disappointed when I read this but since I was already downstairs, I decided to take a walk outside.

Received a note from Kuroda-san in my letterbox

Night Scenery of the river outside my apartment. My apartment is on the opposite side...

I walked along the river, just outside my apartment and just anyhow wandered off after that. I walked to a point where I reached residential area and the surrounding area was so quiet and dim with no one in sight. So Idecided to walk out to the main road and walked down from there. There was really nothing to see as almost 90% of the shops were closed except for a few お好み焼 and 鉄板焼 shops still open. I walked for another 15 minutes until I saw a supermarket, called Fresta. This was quite a big mart with the bright display lights in an otherwise dark and quiet side of this town. I went in to check the price but as usual, it has nothing cheap to offer. As a result, I continued to walk in the cold and freezing weather. It came to a point whereby I started to think where exactly I'm in. With no map on hand and I don recognise the names of the road names and signs, I started to panic a bit. But luckily, I saw the tram's tracks! Hence, I just followed the tracks and when the trams went past me, I looked at its terminating station and it states 広島駅 (Hiroshima Station). So I am walking in the correct direction. :)

Tram heading for Hiroshima Station

I kept walking for another 15 minutes until a junction where I saw 2 YWDs from my district. But they were talking then and did not notice me. I felt strange as how come I can meet them in this place. As they cycled past me, I realised that just 3 more junctions down is my place! Haha! I took 1 hour to reach back to Tokaichi but felt that it's too short. So I decided to keep on walking to the end of the tram line, which is 横川駅 (Yokogawa Station). It took me 30 minutes to reach the station and along the way, everything was also closed and I can hardly see any people around. Over at the station, majority of the shops are already closed except for one supermarket, which is Fresta again! I went in to defroze my hands and feet and just walked around checking out the prices. And nothing special on the prices. After 20 minutes loitering around, I finally walked back home. I reached my apartment at 11pm and went to discuss with Claire our plans for tmr before going back into my room to rest.

4th Week - Thursday (310108) Last Day of January!!!

2008-01-31T21:42:00.000+08:00

There was no meetings today but paperwork occupied my whole day. Claire was sick today as she complained wanting to vomit after drinking ooulong cha for breakfast. Hence she left at lunchtime and I can finally had lunch! Yeah! Today's lunch was delicious. Claire steamed xiu mai, cooked vege and some meat. Usually other people's bento are filled with rice and vege and meat. But my bento was just rice and I requested the dishes to be in separate containers cause I am not full after eating just the bento. I need more rice to fill my stomach up so as to last me for longer hours. Sounds like "fan tong" right? Haha...

My lunch for today!

After lunch, my supervisor came to my table and shared with me some banana cake that his wife baked yesterday. It tasted just like those that you buy from the cake shop. Yummy!

Banana Cake - Oops! There's only a few left. Hehe...

A while later, I received an e-mail about a course in mid-Feb that employees are encouraged to attend. I asked my sup and he allowed me to join. From the title, it sounds related to my course of study and hopefully I can benefit from it. But there are pros and cons though. Pro is the lesson is held at Mazda Plant and I can get to travel there! The con is the lesson is conducted in Japanese but there are translators around. Nevertheless, it is a rare opportunity and I must grab it when it comes. =)

I left office at 6.45pm and decided to try another route home. Along the way, I kept diverting and diverting until I was lost and don't know where I was. But I just carried on cycling and enjoy looking at the different night views that Hiroshima has to offer. When I finally lookked at the road sign, I realised that Hiroshima Port was just 1km away! Wow! So fast? Since I was so near to it, I decided to make it my destination and follow the electric tram's track all the way to the end. Along the way, I stopped by different supermarkets where there were a lot of bicycles parked outside. This should indicate cheap or affordable goods being sold there. The first 2 were ordinary as the prices are comparable to the one near my apartment. But at the third shop, I discovered bread selling at 88 yen, the lowest I've seen so far!!! But too bad I have stocked up my bread. If not, I will buy 5 loaves at one go! Hehe...

Along the way, I also saw Hiroshima University. I did not stop to explore as the school is quite small. But I might explore it someday if I have nothing to do. haha... And it took me around 1 hour 15 minutes to reach Hiroshima Port. The place was very quiet and I think no ferry service was operating at that time. This ferry terminal serves as a gateway to other smaller islands such as Etajima, Nomishima, Ninoshima as well as across the border to Busan of Korea! Cool! But I won't be going overseas (as in Korea) cause I am already overseas!!! Haha! After staying for 15 minutes cycling, wandering around and taking a few photos (my camera froze again. Sian...), I cycled my way back. This time, my legs were so cold hard and numb that it feels as if I'm standing on large blocks of ice. But I have no complains. There is only one month left that I can get to experience winter and I shall enjoy every moment of it. :)

Entrance to Ferry Terminal

Tram Terminal Station - Old vs New Look

I reached my area at 9.15pm and went to Hashimoto-san's house first to collect back Claire's container cause last Sunday, Claire boiled herbal chicken soup and passed them one big bowl. (And Claire really knows how to cook! The soup also tasted like those you expect your parents to make and with the limited ingredients that Claire has, I can only say she is really fabulous!) Both Mr and Mrs Hashimoto-san wanted to thank her for the delicious soup. And I jio Mr and Mrs Hashimoto-san for dinner this Sat (from the request of Claire) and we will be taking at つくし! Yeah! It's been 2 weeks since we have been there and I'm missing the smell of おこのみ焼き(okonomiyaki) already...

At the same time, last Monday, I asked Mr Hashimoto-san whether I can help deliver Seikyo Shinbun newspaper with him. This is because they are giving me free newspaper to read and both of them have to alternately wake up each day at 5am to deliver the papers. I feel I should play a part too and volunteer my services on weekends. But over the past weekend, they checked with the newspaper office and said that I cannot help cause I don have insurance. I told them I am willing to pay for the insurance but they just couldn't let me help them. I felt a bit sad that I cannot contribute in this area and I think they are worried that I might get into accidents. But it's ok, I shall think of other ways to help the local Tokaichi members. =)

And before I leave, Mr Hashimoto-san jio me this Sunday morning to play some sort of cricket game with him (a game whereby you hit the ball with a hammer-shaped stick on the ground and it has to go through a horseshoe-shaped metal arc to gain points). I agreed straightaway and I will meet him this Sunday morning at 8.30am. :)

After this, I walked with my bicycle and numb feet back home for dinner...

4th Week - Wednesday (300108) Blank

2008-01-30T19:33:00.000+08:00

I was busy throughout the day in the office, from meetings in the morning to paperwork preparation in the afternoon and then meetings in the evening. I was given more and more responsibility and my workload will be piling up soon. Should be quite busy for the next few days as we are preparing to go to the next phase of development and thus staying back late might be the norm. (Hopefully, I can break away from this viscous cycle!) In the afternoon, my senior e-mailed us to meet up with other friends for dinner and I had to turn them down! Aargghhh... So with no choice, we have to postpone it to next Wed...

I left office at 7.20pm with my mind totally blank and I could not think much. Hence I decided to take another route back to explore other parts of the city centre and at the same time, relax my mind. This time, I cycled down Hondori all the way to the back of the peace museum. Along the way, the environment reminded me of the days when I was backpacking Melbourne. It looks rather similar with 2, 3 storey houses, beautifully planted trees along both sides of the road and the electric tram in the centre of the road. I thought I'm in Melbourne cycling down to St. Kilda's beach. Haha! But with the japanese road signs and so many cyclists around, I know I am in Japan. :)

I reached home at around 8.15pm, cooked my dinner, did some house stuff here and there before getting serious with my jap study again... (And comes to think of it, tomorrow will be the last day of January and I will surely miss this month! Only 4 and a half months left in Hiroshima and I must maximise my stay to the fullest and leave no regrets behind!!!)

4th Week - Tuesday (290108) Dan Shibu Meeting.

2008-01-29T23:02:00.000+08:00

Nothing much happened in the office today. There was no snow and the weather was not as good as yesterday. Even managed to spare some time to study jap during the evening time in office! And all of a sudden, I am determined to learn more Kanji and went to print out 579 characters to be studied over the next four and a half months. The reason for this is that most of the words that the Japanese use are in Kanji and I am in a handicap when it comes to reading them and hence the motivation to study and learn more.

At 9.15pm, Kuroda-san called and drove me to Kotake's house for meeting. I was surprised as I told them last Sunday that I would go there on my own as I need to familiarise my area better.
During the meeting, as usual, I communicated with them in broken japanese. They were laughing most of the time cause Kuroda-san would ask me questions in english and I would answer him back in Japanese. But when other members spoke too fast and I don understand, Kuroda-san would always translate for me. =)

And this is what we discussed for today, a Gosho passage:

Conversation between a Sage and an Unenlightened Man (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1 p. 131)

"Therefore, if you recite these words of the daimoku once, then the Buddha nature of all living beings will be summoned and gather around you. At that time the three bodies of the Dharma nature within you - the Dharma body, the reward body, and the manifested body - will be drawn forth and become manifest. This is called attaining Buddhahood. To illustrate, when a caged bird sings, the many birds flying in the sky all gather around it at once; seeing this, the bird in the cage strives to get out."

I was very touched as when I read out the japanese version of it, all the members would read it slowly with me. And then we would read the english version slowly together too. We would then discussed about this passage and Kuroda-san would ask me qns on it. I answered in english and he would then translate to the rest in jap. Haha!

Next, I brought with me our SSA times with the 40th anniversary issue and introduced to them our GD and explained to them roughly this event and the structure of SSA. They were amused at our newspaper having english on one side and chinese on the other. :)
After this, we also discussed the difficulties in doing Shakubuku in our respective countries and shared an overview of the experiences we faced. They also encouraged me to go Tokyo to see Sensei live in person and that Soka U graduation would be a great opportunity...
Time passes every fast and it was already 10.45pm. We daimoku 3 times and left Kotake, with the next meeting on this Friday, which is a DanShibu daimokukai.

4th Week - Monday (280108) Snowing Half the Day!!!

2008-01-28T20:08:00.000+08:00

Today's temperature at Tokaichi was 0 degrees! (First time that I witnessed 0 in my area!). But the temp at my workplace was 3 degrees. As usual, did my report and stuff in the morning and can't wait for lunch break to come cause just now in the morning, Claire cooked fried rice and there was my share! Haha... Also, we informed our colleagues that we won't be joining them for the lunch walk as our legs were still sore from Sat's snowboarding.

Having my first home-made lunch in the office!

After lunch, as I was doing my work, I noticed that it was snowing outside the building! Wow! First time witness snow in the city too! However, as the temperature was not cold enough, it just turned into water as it reached the floor. When I felt sleepy at 4 plus, I went down to see it for myself. I did not wear my jacket as I went down and the moment I stepped out of the building, it was super freezing cold! I lasted less than 5 minutes outside as my hands start to turn numb again and hurriedly went back to office. Haha...

It snowed all the way. I finished work at 6.45pm today and went to take my bicycle. But to my surprise, all the bicycles' seats are covered with ice!!! It was drizzling but instead of rain, it dropped down condensed ice. But as I do not want to be stuck in the office waiting, I just unlock my bicycle and cycle home. Although there were not so many people and cyclist along the passageway, it was just as hard to cycle. I was freezing with smoke constantly coming out of my mouth and I could not really open my eyes as the falling ice kept hitting on them. It was a torturous trip back but one trip that I will never forget. :)

It snowed the whole afternoon until the seats are covered with ice!

I stopped by a supermarket to buy some bread and the moment I stepped in, a lot of people were staring at me. I was completely wet with ice covering my jacket and my specs were foggy. Haha... I shivered to the bread corner and get 2 loaves of bread at 118 yen each and then cycled back home again. At my area, it was even colder as there were not so many buildings like in the city. Hence I saw all the cars being covered with snow and the playground circumference outside my apartment was filled with snow too! Haha!

This Toyota Harrier must be freezing. Haha...

I cooked my rice and dinner and was about to eat and then Claire reached home. She was also shivering with ice on her head. Hehe... We came up with an agreement that I would pay her 1000 yen per week and she would help me prepare lunch. Yeah! No more buying of outside food! But I need to help her wash up all the plates and cooking utensils, which I feel is fair. =) So immediately without resting, Claire went to cook some vege and meat for her dinner as well as for our lunch tmr... :)

Yeah! Finally can eat some vege! The vege here are so ex!

Wanted to take a candid shot of her but she still managed to pose. Haha!

3rd Week - Sunday (270108) Kaikan

2008-01-27T22:46:00.001+08:00

Woke up at 9.45am today with muscle-aches, butt pain and sore legs. Haha! Claire and I were supposed to meet Ton-chan at noon for lunch first before going to the Kaikan for a Youth Meeting and Sensei's speech. But I called Claire a few times but she only picked up at 11.30am and said she was aching all over. Hence she decided to rest at home and so I went downstairs to meet Ton-chan.

Ton-chan arrived in a van. I was surprised as I took my bicycle and waited for her outside my apartment. I put it back and went to meet a high school student for lunch. The high school student's name was Kako-san. She was shy as she don know how to speak english and with my limited japanese, we talked little. Ton-chan was like a translator and she kept explaining to me, togehter with her hand guestures the things that they wanna ask or know about me. After lunch, Ton-chan brought me to the kaikan and together, we watched Sensei's video as Sensei gave a speech for the youths. This time round, the whole Makiguchi Memorial Hall was filled with youths, from junior high to high school students to young working adults. This time, Sensei was conferred a honourary doctorate from a university in Panama and then gave a speech. I had difficulty understanding but I noticed that Sensei was constantly encouraging and motivating the youths in the hall. Even Ton-chan was sometimes moved to tears, esp when Sensei entered and left the hall, was greeted with standing ovation.

After this, I went to the kaikan shop to look for some souvenirs. Then I headed back home to get a nap cause I got a photo-taking session with the YMDs later in the evening at 8.30pm. It was a good rest and I left my room at 7.40pm to catch the electric tram to the kaikan again. This time, I was lost in the underpass for 10 minutes as I tried to figure my way to the correct exit of the kaikan. But luckily, I still managed to reach the kaikan before 8.30pm and they were broadcasting Sensei's video for the 2nd time and I watched it again. It ended at 9pm and we had a ヤン男子部 photo taking to give it to Sensei. I then had a chat with them and I managed to make a few more friends from my Tokaichi district: Hamaoka-san, Kuroda-san, Chiba-san and Kuroda-san. I even had an agreement with Konda-san to teach each other English and Japanese! Yeah!!! He will call me again sometime this week and we chatted till 9.45pm and Hamaoka-san then brought me home...

3rd Week - Saturday (260108) SnowBoarding Rules!!!

2008-01-26T20:56:00.000+08:00

Woke up at 5.30am today to get ready for my snowboarding trip. This will be the first time that I will see snow-covered places, needless to say snowboarding. Haha...

Our senior came at 6.50am to pick us up. The place that we will be snowboarding is Mizuho Highlands, which is located in Shimane Prefecture, northwest of Hiroshima Prefecture. Mizuho is a popular skiing and snowboarding resort in the Chugouku region and people from Kyuushu Island and Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Okayama Prefectures would choose this resort! (Finally I am out of Hiroshima! Hehe...) The whole journey took about 1 hour 10 minutes but the return trip took 2 hours and 35 minutes cause my senior chose the route that do not need to pay toll charges. Our senior was surprised when he saw us initially. He said I brought little stuff to change while Claire wore too much clothing until she looked very beefed up. (maybe 7 layers for upper body, 3 layers for lower body and 5 pairs of socks!) However, I still don care and we just drove off...

As we approached nearer to the resort, we could see that the ground was covered with patches of snow and so were the mountains. We were so fascinated that we kept saying "Wow, wow!" as this was also the first time Claire was seeing snow too. We reached the highland and my senior went to check the ski and snowboard package (equipments, clothing rental and entrance pass). But to our disappointment, it was not offered on weekends and hence, we decided to get to one of the smaller shops outside the resort to rent our equipments. The breakdown of cost is as shown:

- Car Rental = 5000 yen for each person
- Toll Charges = 800 yen for each person
- Snowboard Equipment (Board + Shoes) = 3000 yen
- Clothing (Jacket and Pants) = 2000 yen
- Gloves = 500 yen
- Entrance Pass = 5500 yen
- 2 hour Morning Lesson = 3500 yen

(Today really spent a lot. Must save up next time!!!)

Snow covered places as we are reaching the resort

One of those equipment rental shops just outside the resort

Yeah! Finally got my own clothing and equipments!

After testing out all the equipments and clothing, we immediately head back to the resort as the lesson that I am going to register starts at 10.30am. We then went back, brought the entrance tickets, took a 10 minutes Gondola (something like cable-car but it brings you up to the peak of the mountain where the actual skiing and snowboarding is being carried out. And just in time, I was the last to register for the morning class and was so lucky that since there was another foreigner, there will be a teacher just for the 2 of us and the lesson will be conducted in english. (I initially thought that I would just look at the hand guestures of the teacher if I am in the japanese class) The foreigner's name was Angel and he was from Puerto Rico. Cool! Our sensei, whose name was Yoshiko-san, brought us to the ameuter's slope which would take 10-15 minutes to reach the bottom. We did some warm-up and then she taught us the basics. For the 1st half of the slope, I was being taught how to balance myself, control my board using my heels to brake and slide left and right. It was a struggle and I fell down a lot of times. But during the second half of the slope, I managed to control my speed and can shift sideways along the wide slope. Yeah!!! Then we repeated another 2 times by going up to the peak again and slide down. This time, I was being taught how to control using my front toes and the third time, turning 180 degrees. (I haven't master this fully yet...)

A 5 minutes ride up to the ameuter slope. Doesn't this look so fairytale?

Me with my sensei, Yoshiko-san and Puerto Rico classmate, Angel

Along the way, I saw Claire. She did not take any lessons and was trying out on her own (skiing). She was stuck at the trees when I slided past her. She told me she had banged against a tree and has injured her leg. Oh dear! So during my second slide-down, I saw her sitting down stoning. At the third slide-down, she was making snowman! Haha! Overall, she only skiied twice. One in the morning and the second after lunch where she now banged against the rock and the staff medical team put her on a sledge and brought her down! Overall, I snowboarded 7 times, fell down more than 20 times, had one very hard impact for my butt onto the hard ice, got stuck near the trees once and knocked onto another person and injured my shin. Now my butt hurts real bad and think I will have sore legs tmr. haha... But nonetheless, I really enjoyed myself and just wanna keep going and going!!! But a note to first-timers, try attending lessons if possible as the instructors will teach you the basic techniques and give you advise on how to improve. It will definitely be better than learning on your own as you will just keep falling and falling and maybe get a phobia after that.

[Interesting Fact: Most of our cameras died off when we were up at the resort. Maybe the cold temperature froze the akaline liquid inside the battery, causing it to be low batt even when I charged it the night before. Hence this explains why I could not take that many shots. However, Angel's camera is working fine and I will take the pics from him when he visit Hiroshima next week. =)]

Top of the slope...

15 minutes down to the bottom...

We stayed till 4.40pm as they were closing at 5pm. There was this very long stretch of slope, at some parts very steep, which starts from the peak all the way to the bottom of the mountain and the whole slide down takes ard 30 minutes. But because Claire was injured, I helped carry her ski equipments and we took the Gondola down. But next time, I must definitely try out this finale long slope. :) At the bottom, we changed back to our normal clothing and return back all the rental equipment before our senior drives us home.

Yeah! We have finally reached home!!!

3rd Week - Friday (250108) Tiring Day!

2008-01-25T21:20:00.000+08:00

Attended a meeting in the morning. Was quite fruitful as we sawsome light in the development of our project but still a long way before the upper management gives the green light.

Then at 11.40am, I informed my supervisor and the rest of the colleagues that it was time for lunch! Haha!!! They were so engrossed in their work that they actually forgot we got a lunch together! My side headed to the restaurant first as Claire's side was waiting for their collegues to gather. We walked for 5 minutes and entered into this bar district which my supervisor told me not to come at night. Hmmm, so dangerous meh?
We then waited for everyone to arrive before starting our Italian meal. I sat beside Claire as usual and we chatted with our colleagues. Before the start, my supervisor asked me to prepare a speech to speak after the meal. But towards the end, due to the time constraint and busy work schedule of everybody, we left after our last course. I even had to swallow my coffee and rushed off. Haha...

Me and Claire took time off in the afternoon to collect our Foreign ID Pass, opening of bank and internet account! Finally!!! But since Claire forgot to bring her documents, we cycled back to our apartment first. This was the first time that I actually cycled in the afternoon and it feels very refreshing with the sun shining and the cold wind blowing at you at the same time. I really liked it a lot. :)
It took us 15 minutes to cycle and squeeze our bikes through the city centre to reach the Foreign Immigration office. From there we handed in our forms and straightaway, the person gave us our IC. Have been waiting for this card for too long liao. Haha... Next we just cycled down the street to the bank to open our bank account. And since we have filled in the form previously, we just submit it back to the lady again, together with our IC. The whole process took around 30 minutes cause we still need t fill in some portions of the form and listen to other explanations. But it was always Claire who did the talking as I could not understand fully what the lady was saying. But from what our office colleagues say, there would always be someone from our office who would bring the interns to open the account but with Claire's proficiency, think they just throw us into the pit hole and let us survive ourselves...

And after that, we cycled to Hondori to subscribe for Internet. This was the most hardest and challenging task of all. The procedure was so different from that in Singapore. After filling in the form, they will send it to the network operator. Then we will receive our starter pack with our account no on it. Next we must go down to the shop and ask them to call the operator for some reasons which I still don understand. Then we will receive our modem and wires by courier and bookhave to book another appointment with another operator to come our room to set it up for us. They gave us some free services but only for one month or two and then we must go somewhere (stated in the papers) to cancel them after that. We will pay our bills at 7-11 stores, which is new to me and one good thing is that we get 2 months of Internet free from their promotion and we will only pay for May and June. But we have to wait till end of Feb to receive it. Haiz... Claire and I had a very hard time communicating with the counter guy as he talked so fast and kept introducing new terms from the contract. In the end, he also gave up and called for one jap person who could speak english to act as the translator. At least now it's better, if not, I would have really vomitted out blood...

I reached back to office at 4.30pm and there were lots of work waiting for me! Got a last minute meeting at 6pm and after it ended, was already 7pm. Then I stayed back to finish up on 2 reports and was working on the 3rd one when the last person from my floor is leaving. So I have no choice but to leave with him. I feel like I was competing with the managers to see who leave office the latest but I think I won today cause I still haven't finish my work yet. Hehe...

Reached back to my apartment at 9.30pm and had my dinner while watching X-men 2. It was so strange to hear Wolverine, Storm and the rest speak in Japanese but I just watched while eating...

And ya, will be going snowboarding tomorrow morning. Will be meeting my senior at 6am at the front entrance of our apartment block, which means me and Clarie have to wake up at 5am later. I'm too tired to be excited about the trip now and I will be sleeping all the way to the resort tmr morning ba. But hopefully not! Well, I have less than 5 hours of sleep now and really, いま　つかれました！Need to sleep soon, if not, I might even miss the trip tmr morning!!! Good night for now!

3rd Week - 木曜日 (２４０１０８) 今日は　広島市で　はじめて　少し　ゆきが　降りましたね！！！　すごい！！！

2008-01-24T19:55:00.000+08:00

Today was me and Claire's second week anniversary in Hiroshima. (Don get the wrong idea. We just spent 2 weeks in Hiroshima working and nothing else! Haha...)

In the morning, as we were cycling to work, just about 200m away from our apartment, before we reached the A-bomb dome, we saw particles coming down. After a closer look, it was SNOW!!! This is the first time in my 24 years of life that I actually saw real snow coming down from the sky!!! And it has reached Hiroshima City!!! Yeah! The temperature then was 2 degrees but just less than 3 minutes later, the snow was gone. I wanted to take a pic of the snow and me with the A-bomb dome as the background but luck was not on my side. Hence we just carried on cycling to our office.

During lunch time, as usual, I met up with my colleagues for a brisk walk and when we got out of the office, I felt like I was in the freezer! Cool!!! It was also snowing but like in the morning, only bits of it. It was strange to see snow with the afternoon sun together. But this time round, it lasted for half of my 40 minutes walk and I really enjoyed looking at the snow coming down as we walked through the beautiful sceneries of Hiroshima castle with its mountainous backdrop. As we walked and chatted, I then realised that one of my colleague was also joining us for the ski trip this sat! And she even managed to convince me to snowboard instead of ski as all of them will be snowboarding. Wow! But I told her that I'll go there and eat the snow cause I'll keep falling down! Hehe...

Then after work, I went to Hondori to walk around as Claire was in the office doing OT till 11pm I think. I visited a toy store but was disappointed to see only a handful of transformer toys left. Maybe this craze has gone. But still, I looked around and saw other interesting toys that were not found in Singapore. After that, I reached home at around 8.30pm, cooked my own dinner, ironed my shirts and did a bit of laundry before reading my books and brushing up on my jap. Will be looking forward to tomorrow as the company is giving us a welcome lunch. But before that, I have to prepare my stuff for tmr's morning meeting first...

3rd Week - Wednesday (230108) Sushi Dinner!

2008-01-23T21:50:00.000+08:00

Today was a quiet day in the office. Went for walk with my colleagues during lunchtime but without Claire as someone (another office lady) was treating her to lunch...

Then in the afternoon received an e-mail from our senior jioing us for sushi dinner tonight and both of us agreed. This would be the first time that we are meeting him. After work we cycled back to our apartment quickly and at 8pm, he called us down. We split into 2 cars and headed for somewhere (which I don know where, but it's about a 15 minutes car ride. This is the furtherest I have been outside Hiroshima City. Haha...) for a sushi restaurant that he strongly recommends as the seafood there are very fresh and it is slightly bigger in size than those restaurants found in the city...

Me and Claire with our senior and his colleagues.

The fish and unagi slices are very long compared to Singapore's!!!

The prawn is still moving! haha...

A sensor is being placed at the bottom of each plate to tabulate the cost. There are 6 different price plates here.

Having another photo before going home...

We ate and chatted till 10pm and then they brought us home, which we discussed about this Sat's ski program before they drove off...

3rd Week - Tuesday (220108) My First Dan Shibu Meeting!

2008-01-22T18:52:00.000+08:00

Was busy throughout in the office with meetings in the morning and discussions with my supervisor in the afternoon. Knocked off work today at 6.45pm and quickly rushed back to rest first cause I got a meeting at 9.30pm. This time round, it is a YMD meeting and this is also my first! And since Claire can't join, she went to the Internet cafe again. Haha!

When I got out of my office building, I realised that it was drizzling and my whole bicycle was wet! But without any choice, I had to cycle back under the rain (think I was the only clown who did that). I hardly see any cyclist and everyone was holding an umbrella. And this time, the weather is as cold as the morning and smoke kept coming out of my mouth! When I entered my apartment ground floor, my hands were so numb and hard that it took me a while to reach for my keys. Shiok man!!! Never experience this in Singapore before!!! :)

Then after a shower and checking of mails, I went to コタケのうち for the meeting at 9.10pm.

As I walked, I seemed to get lost and I finally decided to go Hashimoto-san's house to ask for directions. (I don wanna topo in the cold night cause i'm wearing slippers and my toes will get frozen! Haha!) And luckily when I saw Hashimoto-san, he told me the YMDs are driving and waiting outside my apartment. Hence they drive to Hashimoto-san's house to pick me up. :)

During the meeting, I can see that they tried talking slowly with a lot of hand gestures and were trying very hard to help me understand what they were saying. I think they got a lot to cover but because of the time they spent on me, they cut it short and gave a sensei's guidance and an article from Seikyo Shinbun shared by one of the members, Kando-san who was impressed with a baseball player and how he overcame a lengthy injury layoff and got back into the game. They also informed me about this Sunday's ymd photo-taking at the kaikan and it is to be sent to Tokyo to give it to Sensei! And they invited me to be part of the group!!! Yeah!!! After the meeting, Kando-san asked whether I know William and showed me a photo of William in it. For the photo, it was a gift from William and he wrote an english message at the back to encourage him to learn and improve his english! (William, you still remember him right? Haha...) After this, we took a photo together and I took Tsuboi-san's car home.

Me with the Dan Shibu (Kando-san is third from the right)

3rd Week - Monday (210108) Meetings all the way!!!

2008-01-21T20:44:00.001+08:00

Today morning's temperature is 4 degrees. I expected it to be a cold weather, so I wore gloves for the first time cycling my bicycle. It's fun to see that every breathe you exhale, smoke will come out. Shiok sia!!! Then in the office, I realised that yesterday does not rain the whole day for no reason. In fact, the rural areas of Hiroshima Prefecture and also Hiroshima airport were snowing yesterday!!! I could see snow at the mountain top when my colleague pointed out to me!!!

Next, I received a mail from my senior saying that he will go snow-boarding this saturday and jio me and Claire along! Yeah!!! But the cost is not cheap and this is the breakdown of the ski trip(estimated):

1. Bus: 5000yen
2. Lift Ticket + board/boots rental +
ski-wear rental + gloves: 9500yen
3. Morning Lesson: 3500yen

Will be looking forward to it but let me focus on my work first. :)

Then went for brisk walk with 3 of my collagues during lunch time and came back with sushi for lunch.

Thereafter, it was meetings all the way, one after another. It finally ended at 6.30pm and after I'm done with the paperwork, it was already 7.20pm. And today I got a weekly gakkai meeting at Katsuko-san's house. As a result, I sprinted using my bicycle to her house! (btw, Claire left early cause she got nothing much to do in the office and went to the internet cafe to chat with her bf). I reached Katsuko-san's house at 7.40pm and by then Hashimoto-san was briefing on Feburary's event. Some of the important events are as follows:

i) 3rd Feb: 御書 Studies
ii) Sensei's speech beamed via satelite live from Tokyo!!! (Wow! I must attend!!!)
- 8th Feb: 11.00 and 19.00
- 9th Feb: 13.30 and 20.00
- 10th Feb: 13.30 and 20.00 (we can choose to attend any one of these timings!)
iii) 16th Feb: 私の恥部　座談会 [maybe I will get ready a speech... =)]
iv) 21st Feb: 男支部　と　庄年部　meeting
v) 24th Feb: 折伏 seminar in Kaikan

After this, came the appointment of new WD leaders. One unique thing to note is that they will present flowers to both the stepping down and newly appointed leader! The new leader then gave a speech, with so much determination but given the noise consideration to the neighbours, she cannot shout out loud. But I can see her firm resolve in taking care of the members under her care and her determination in doing shakubuku. :)

When the meeting ended, Hashimoto-san and some senior leaders stayed back and discussed about the reshuffling of the Block-Leaders. (cause in Japan, it starts with block => district => chapter => zone) Then at around 8.40pm, they finished their discussion and I accompanied Mr and Mrs Hashimoto-san home before heading to the supermarket to buy my dinner. :)

2nd Week - The Weekend

2008-01-20T11:10:00.000+08:00

Sunday (200108): Rest Day

Today Claire and I were supposed to go for another bicycle exploration trip. I suggested cycling to Hiroshima Port or to Miyajima station but Claire watched the weather forecast yesterday and told me that it will snow in the northern part of Hiroshima today. So we decided to check that out first. But after thinking for a while, I feel that it should be snowing in the northen part of Hiroshima Prefecture and not Hiroshima City (cause Hiroshima Prefecture is very big! And our city is located at the south). But still, we decided to try it out. :)

But when we woke up today at 9am, it was drizzling and it continued past noon time. Hmm, so we will just keep waiting... In the meantime, I'll continue my jap revision and read today's Seikyo Shinbun that Hashimoto-san put into my letterbox. :)

While reading half-way, Claire called up and told me to watch the TV. Apparently, there is a show on animals and in this epsiode, they were testing out the behaviour of kittens with a rotating sushi belt. Interesting and the kittens were so cute!!! haha...

Shots taken from my TV. The kittens were introduced a rotating sushi tray...

So cute and adorable!!!

After that, I switched to another channel and discovered there was a running competition! I suddenly remembered that my colleagues informed me that there's a Prefectural Relay Race this sunday and I actually forgot it! Oh no! So no choice, I have to watch it on television on a rainy sunday... =(

For this race, from what I understand, Hiroshima is hosting the 13th leg of the competition, with 47 prefectures joining it and there are 7 runners for each team, usually students from universities, and ran about 10km each. (just my estimate) The scary time is that they were dressed in their running attire, that is, a singlet and shorts in the cold and rainy weather! (I feel so cold already in my room, Haha...) Impressive!

The finishing point is at the back of the Peace Museum, which is within the Atomic-Bomb Dome and a 15 minutes walk from my apartment!!!

The first runner came in at 2 hours and 20 minutes (approximated) and the selected results are as follows:

1. 長野 (Nagano)
2. 愛知 (Aichi)
13. 東京 (Tokyo)
15. 福岡 (Fukuoka)
16. 長埼 (Nagasaki)
21. 山口 (Yamaguchi)
24. 広島 (Hiroshima)
26. 静岡 (Shizuoka)
27. 大坂 (Osaka)
30. 北海道 (Hokkaido)
33. 京都 (Kyoto)
35. 奈羅 (Nara)
41. 青森 (Aomori)
43. 福山 (Fukuyama)
45. 新潟 (Niigata)

My Singapore-style fried noodles!

And really, it has been raining the whole day! In the evening, Claire cooked some Singapore-style fried noodles with sausages and vegetables in it and was really yummy! Then I continued revising my jap and read up a bit more of work stuff to get ready for tomorrow.

Saturday (190108): Work, Work and Work

Went back to office to carry on reading my stuff. Received a surprise mail from Claire that she’s in too! Haha… Then we stayed till 5pm and went back to our apartment together. On the way, as that time was the knock-off timing for most of the working people, the street was crowded with people. So we decided to take another route back. We chose the one that we brisk walked the other time, passing through Hiroshima castle and shrine as well as the sports centre and science centre for kids. This route seems like a big round and we cycled for quite long before reaching the A-bomb dome and getting back to the conventional route that we had always cycled.

Along the way, we decided to check out another supermarket, called Mama-chen cause Hashimoto-san told us yesterday that the food there was the cheapest among all, just that the size is smaller. It was just 2 junctions away from the mart near our apartment (Apanda). By the time we reached, it was already 5.45pm and there was almost nothing left (and it closes at 6pm and on Sundays). I noticed that the breads were selling at 100yen per loaf and decided to buy 2 loaves. Haha!!! I also bought blueberry jam at 105yen, butter at 198yen and cup noodles at 88yen. Claire bought an apple, a small pack of strawberries at 390yen (she said she found the same packing of strawberries in Singapore and it was selling at S$9 plus, so it is worth it to buy it here…)

Then after that we went home and Claire taught me how to cook crispy butter bread using butter (of course!) and a frying pan. The result was really good! In the end, I cooked another 2 more slices and just keeping eating and eating…

My crispy butter bread!!!

At around 9pm, my parents went online and chatted with me. We chatted and laughed for 45 minutes before they told me to go and rest, which I said I won’t. Haha… Then I chatted with my cousin for another 10 minutes and to my other friends before going offline. The next time I will talk to my parents will be CNY ba (which they arranged for me), which sadly is a working day here in Japan… But it's ok! I will try something new and refreshing here in Hiroshima!!!

2nd Week - Friday (180108) My First Zadankai!!!

2008-01-18T22:08:00.000+08:00

Was cycling with Claire as usual to office. On our way, Claire saw the temperature board on the building's advertising screen and was shocked that the temperature then (8.30am) was only 3 degrees!!! I was shocked cause I always thought the temperature would always remain at 9 degrees! This explains why my hands, cheeks and ears become numb and hard from the cycling and usually takes 10 minutes to thaw! Haha... But I still prefer the cold temp than the temp in Singapore. Those who know me will know why! Haha!!!

During lunch time, went to buy Bento from a convenience store and while coming out of the building saw my big boss. He was waiting for other staff to come down to go for the brisk walk. I told him I'm joining them today but I will join them next week. Pai Seh sia!!! Must really exercise, if not I will grow fat in Japan. Hehe... (And today's Bento cost me 420yen. Aarrgghh... Must really prepare and bring my own bento lunch next time liao...)

The junction near my office building

After lunch, Claire and I both received e-mails from the big boss's sercetary saying that they have booked an Italian restaurant next Friday to have a Welcome Lunch for us with all the staff! Wow!!! I never imagine this would happen to me as an intern!!! I must really cherish this moment in Japan and live life to the fullest!!!

After work, which ended at 6.25pm today, Claire and I cycled straight back to our apartment cause we are meeting Mrs Hashimoto-san at 7pm at our apartment's ground floor. Just when we parked our bikes, we saw Mrs Hashimoto and she brought us straight to コタケ's (kotake) house for Zadankai! We reached just a bit past 7pm and Hashimoto-san was leading gongyo. We joined in but I suddenly remembered that I forgot to bring my beads and gongyo book! But Mrs Hashimoto lent me a spare beads and we chanted for 10 minutes. She also passed me a Japanese gongyo book which I can't catch up when reading jap words and so I just did gongyo without the book. It lasted for around 10 minutes and after that, we started the meeting. Hashimoto-san was the MC and he talked and create laughter for everyone. One difference about the japanese meeting is that the MC will give eveyone a chance to speak out and share their experiences with this Buddhism. (Of course I was not excluded! Haha...) I was really touched and filled with emotions at that time to really have the chance to experience and learn from the meetings in Japan. I feel like this is a dream and everything is just too good to be true...

Me outside Kotake where we have our monthly zadankais...

After a few members' speech, Hashimoto-san introduced me to the audience. I stood up and began to introduce myself. I spoke in Japanese about myself and explained that my jap was bad (とてもヘたですね！！！) and the audience just laughed. Hashimoto-san said I'm an SGI member but poor japanese but Claire was not a SGI member but her jap was good. The people laughed again. Haiz, need to really brush up my jap everyday liao...

After everyone has the chance to speak, 2 YWDs came up and gave a quiz to the audience on Soka Gakkai and we must say whether it is wrong or right. As they were speaking so fast and the sentences so long, me and Claire just whacked and give an answer. Haha...

After their segment, a YMD leader came out and shared with the audience teachings on the Daishonin's Buddhism. He quoted from the book "The Daibyakuren" (大白连华）(someting similar to our Creative Life, CL). Although I could only understand less than 15 per cent of their conversation, I could see their passion and enthusiasm in wanting to share this Buddism with others, something that not all Singapore members are doing...

For the last speech, I think it was being concluded by the WD Zone chief. I think she mentioned about me about the gongyo part or something else which I am not so sure. She also mentioned about last Sunday's Sensei video (Oh no! I just discovered that Hashimoto-san has been delivering Seikyo Shinbun to my letterbox every morning but I never open it at all! When I went to open just now, all the newspapers were gone!!! I must go and sort out this matter asap... Cause Hashimoto-san said that this is my present and want me to strengthen my faith and reading and improving my jap at the same time! And that he would continue giving me newspaper until the day I leave Hiroshima! Ahhh, I was really very touched!!!)

After the meeting, while eveyone was packing and ready to leave, I suddenly have the urge and hold them back to tell them my resolution for my stay here in Hiroshima. (For this, I shall not tell you... Hehe...) And then, we went on to take group photos together...

Claire and I with the Jo Shibu

Taking a group photo with everybody!!! :)

The meeting lasted from 7pm to 8pm and then we went for dinner with Hashimoto-san and wife but this time, 2 other YWDs (Ton-chan and Emi-chan) joined in. We went to a Yaki-Tori restaurant and Hashimoto-san ordered a lot of dishes!!! (We ate until there were leftovers that Claire decided to put it inside her Bento for tmr's lunch. Haha...) During the meal, they informed me of other meetings, one will be on Mondays, another is YMD & MD and it is held on Tuesdays and there's a Youth Division meeting next Sunday). Claire is ok with the meetings and I shall keep you guys posted again then... :)

Me and Mrs Hashimoto-san inside the yaki-tori restaurant...

Delicious Tori Karage...

Hmm, can someone tell me the name of this dish? I forgot already. Hehe...

Ton-chan and Emi-chan joining us for dinner...

We ate until 10.20pm and left the place cause me and Hashimoto-san need to go office for work tmr (though it's a Sat but I have to make up for the Monday's "Adult Day" holiday) Lucky Claire, she don need to go back office and I wonder what she will do tmr...

Taking another photo outside the restaurant before going home...

And so yap, that is how I spent my first Zadankai... :)

2nd Week - Thursday (170108) My First Exercise!!!

2008-01-17T19:40:00.000+08:00

As usual, today reached office at 8.40am. Straight away went to read up my notes as there were really a lot of things to know!!!

However, during lunch, Claire and I have the opportunity to join our 2 big bosses for a brisk walk! (Cause they came over in the morning to ask us whether wanna join them!) So we started at 12.15pm and they really brisk walked!!! Me and Claire had to constantly run to catch up with them. And it doesn't help that I wore my business attire to walk with them as I was only being invited in the morning! (My toes hurt after the walk and think I will bring track shoes from tmr onwards.) The whole walk lasted 40 minutes and initially when we first started, I was shivering cause the afternoon temperature was only 7 degrees! But 20 minutes later, because of the heat generated inside my body, I feel warm and finally unzip my jacket! On the way, we walked past Hiroshima castle. (It's my first time at that place at it's really beautiful! I will take lots of pics of it the next time) But according to my boss, it is not the original castle as the A-bomb had flattened the actual one down. So sad... We also walked past the A-bomb dome, saw our apartment from far and Hondori before reaching our building. It is really an experience!!!

Around 12.55pm, we reached our office building but have not had lunch yet. (But Claire had brought her own bento). So I just went to Mister Donut shop and bought 2 donuts cause we need to be in office before 1pm. And ya, that's my lunch! (I feel as if I have not eaten even though I ate them! Aargghh, need to prepare my own lunch next time too...)

I finished work at around 7.15pm today and since we were so hungry, we decided to eat Hiroshima-yaki again to pamper ourselves!!! (But we will try other patterns..) We reached つくし at 7.45pm. (cause I went home to change as I don want my office wear to have the cooking smell) I came down with a T-shirt, shorts and slippers! I can tell you the feeling is very shiok!!! If you remain still on the streets for a minute, your legs will start to shiver, amid the smoke coming out of your mouth... I ran and rushed to the okonomiyaki shop which was at 2 small junctions away and met up with Claire, who ordered for me first.

Ojisan preparing my hiroshima-yaki with soba in it...

Me and Claire posing with our different flavour okonomiyaki!!!

After the meal, the shop uncle gave each of us a complimentary bowl of traditional mochi with red bean topping! Delicious!!! Thank you uncle!!! After that, we told him and the auntie that we will be back next week! :)

Having our complimentary traditional-style mochi with red bean paste topping after our meal.

Ojisan laughed at me for wearing so little. So I decided to take a pic with him...

It's really very cold!!! Need to run back home already. Bye Bye!!!

And inside my apartment, I poured out all the notes to read until around 1am. Need to sleep early cause I got a morning meeting tmr...

2nd Week - Wednesday (160108) Ramen Lunch & Curry Rice Dinner!

2008-01-16T21:37:00.000+08:00

2nd day of work. Another day of infinity reading and receiving new e-mails, with tons of information coming in.

During lunch, me and Claire cycled to Hondori, which is just a road away from our workplace to eat ramen. (cause Claire discovered this cheap ramen shop yesterday night). I chose shoo ramen (salt ramen) selling at 294yen and we ate happily.

Me outside a Ramen Shop...

My Shoo ramen!!!

The posters inside the ramen shop...

Kanna a warning letter as we parked our bicycles at non-parking areas...

Then in the office, managed to contact through e-mail, with one of our past graduate who was working in the company. He said he will bring us to Miyajima to eat the fresh BBQ oysters in Feb as during that time, it is the season for oysters and will be cheaper than usual! (yummy!!!) Then Claire asked him about skiing and he said that he will go snow-boarding next Sat! So maybe we might meet-up with him then and try out skiing! (wow, really looking forward to it liao!!!) But he will confirm with us again…

Then my supervisor also gave me oranges to eat after lunch which he said was planted by his mom. (cool!!!) Then when I came back from a meeting, I received a Japanese calendar, which was being put on my chair. I was surprised but I dare not ask around as all the staff were very busy in their work. Thank you whoever that gave me the calendar! :)

Received a Calendar in my work place!!!

After work, we came out of office at 7.45pm. (cause wanted to check exactly what time the pple here go home). Cycled to our apartment’s mart called Apanda to buy ingredigents to cook or source for cheapo bargains. But in the end, no good offer was found (only yesterday was ridiculous for the bread, today it went to the usual price of 158yen again). Then I suggested going to another mart that me and Claire recce last Sunday, called Fresta. We cycled 11 minutes starting at 8.11pm and went into that mart. But to our disappointment, not much food was left and there was no discount on the price either. Hence, we decided to go back to Apanda to buy our food. We cycled for 12 minutes and in the end, I found instant curry pack selling at a special price for today, that is, at 100yen. I straight away bought 3 packs and reached home at 9pm to cook my own rice with that curry pack… :)

Preparing my own instant curry for dinner...

And yeah! My curry rice dinner!

2nd Week - Tuesday (150108) First Day of Work

2008-01-16T03:22:00.000+08:00

Reached office at 8.30am, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Had briefings for the whole morning about the rules and regulations of the company. (By the way, it takes only 13 minutes to cycle from my apartment to the office) :)

After that went for lunch and bought a bento at 500yen at ate in the office.

After lunch, I met up with my supervisor and he brought me to the office and my desk. I was really shocked and touched to see on my comp's monitor screen, with a paper pasted on it with the words "Welcome to Ford Hiroshima Operations, Chong-san!! :)". He also gave me new stationaries to use!!! Then he brought me around to introduce me to all the members of my department. I then stayed in the office till 6.15pm and left together with Claire to Hondori to use the internet.

Finished blogging at 7.45pm and then went Daiso and supermarket to buy some foodstuff. There's a special offer on the bread, selling at 98yen (really the cheapest I have seen so far! haha...) and went back home to eat instant noodles. (Need to save the time cause I got a lot of notes given by my supervisor to read).

And yap, that's how I spend my first day in the office...

Second Week - Getting Ready For Work!!!

2008-01-14T19:29:00.000+08:00

Today is Adult's Day in Japan and so a public holiday. Woke up later than usual cause Claire told me yesterday night that she caught a flu and had sore throat, so we decided not to go out and rest more to compensate for the past few days of insufficient sleep.

Did my morning gongyo and then went on to rearrange my stuff to make it more tidy. Had 2 slices of bread for breakfast while watching TV and then went on to revise my jap for one hour. At 2pm, Claire called me and she passed me lunch over the balcony. She cooked my portion of her lunch!!! Thanks Claire!!! I was really surprised cause I intended to wait till dinner to cook my own curry to pour onto my rice but now, I was given a free lunch! :) It was delicious!!!

Lunch prepared by Claire. Oishii!!!

The views outside my apartment unit taken at my balcony

Me using the comp at the balcony

After that, I went to blog and at 5pm, met up with Claire to go Hondori to use the Internet at the cafe. (I regretted wearing just a normal T-shirt and jacket to go out as I'm freezing as we cycled along the streets). Along the way, we saw quite a bit of teenagers wearing special costumes. The girls wore kimono while the boys wore yukata. The guys were really very handsome with their hairstyle and clothings! (Singapore guys definitely cannot win them. Haha...) I think they should be the 20 years old who just turned 21 this year ba and might have attended some ceremony earlier in the day. So that's why they dressed like that.

We did not take their photos as they were in one gang but Claire sercetly took their photo from far. Haha... But anyway, we went to the cafe next and used the Internet till 9pm and we cycled back home, ate our dinner and were preparing for tmr's first day of work.

I'm eagerly waiting for tmr to come!!! :)

My First Weekend in Hiroshima

2008-01-13T11:18:00.000+08:00

120108 - Saturday: Attending our First Jap Lesson and having Welcome Dinner with Hashimoto-san and wife

Woke up at the same time today at 8.10am and gave Claire a morning call at 8.30am. Went out at 9.30am and it was raining for the whole morning. (In Hiroshima at this moment in time, the morning and night are very cold and when you talk, smoke will come out of your mouth! Cool man!!! But seriously, if you don wear gloves, your hand will become numb after 10 minutes of walking. But for me, I always put my hand inside my pocket.) By the time we came out, it was drizzling but we still decided to use our bicycles to cycle (our very first cycling trip!) to find the Japanese class, which was located along the Hondori stretch.

My every first cycling trip!

It took us 15 minutes to find the building. The building is called Crystal Plaza and the place we are going to is located on the 6th floor, which is called Hiroshima International Centre or HIC in short. And while parking our bicycles in the bicycle park of the building, we realized that every bicycle has a coupon attached to it to make sure it is valid to park there. Hence we asked around and found out that we must go to the security counter of the building to take this coupon, if not, your bicycle will be placed outside the building.

After this, we went up to HIC to register for the lessons. The receptionist said that the lessons are free but that they must charge a membership fee of 2000¥ as they are currently facing financial difficulties. (Like that also can? Haha...) We paid but since the time then is only 10.45am but the next lesson only starts at 1pm, we decided to find a table to sit down and revise our jap again. At around 12.15pm, a guy came and informed us of where the lessons are going to be conducted. He also asked us of our jap standard to gauge and in the end, I’m going for level 2 class while Claire will be going for level 3 class. And that guy happens to be Claire’s sensei while I waited for my sensei to come. Claire helped me ask and then a young lady came in. Her name is Yamasaki-san and she is currently a third year university student doing voluntary work in teaching.

During her class which is from 1pm to 3pm, she talked throughout in jap and taught us the て-form, which I had already learnt. For my class, there are 6 people altogether, 3 people from China, 1 American Chinese, 1 Singaporean and 1 New Zealander. Cool... After the lesson, I managed to take photos with my class and Yamasaki Sensei...

My classmates and sensei for the jap class

Me and Yamasaki Sensei taking a photo after class

After this at around 3.30pm, Claire and I decided to go back to the Internet café to blog our story. I can finally upload my photos (first time since arrival!) and show to everyone on the web!!! And at 6.15pm, we ended and cycled back cause we are meeting Hashimoto-san and wife for a sushi dinner!!!

Me blogging and replying e-mails at an Internet cafe

At 7pm, we walked to their apartment and I gave Hashimoto-san a Singapore “Fine” City T-shirt bought at Chinatown and a bottle of Pork floss. Claire gave Hashimoto-san her specially baked cupcakes with the Hiragana words, はじめまして (Hajimemashite, which means “How do you do?”) on it.

Then they brought us to the sushi restaurant. Yeah!!! They initially wanted us to choose what we wanr but looking at the menu, we do not know what exactly are the dishes. Hence they ordered for us and looking at the menu, each dish is more than 1000¥! Very expensive!!! We ate about 10 dishes and by my estimate, the whole meal would have cost them 40000¥!!! (I hope not!!!) Our meal includes shashimi (which is every fresh and you won’t find the fish smell), big red beans with gold powder on it, fried fish, one sushi plate with 10 sushi per person, dai nihon jin (“Big Japanese” but I don’t know what the food actually is!), fried mini-sunflower (this is the first time I am eating a flower!!!), fried chicken and fried pepper pork, fish meat rolled with fish “testicles” in it (maybe I ‘m wrong) and dessert (Includes vanilla ice cream, green tea ice cream, red bean paste and 5 mochis!!!) Wow, the meal was really extravagant!!! Too delicious and authentic to be true!!!

Me with Hashimoto-san and Wife at the Sushi restaurant

During the meal, I showed Hashimoto-san and wife William’s graduation pictures as well as some SD pics from my laptop. I also asked them when is the next meeting which they replied is next Friday at 7pm at Kotake’s house. Mrs Hashimoto will come to our apartment and “Bing Bong, Bing Bong” us (press the door bell to call us). Interesting terms they use. Hehe... I also asked them about the kaikan and they told me they will be going tmr night. I told them I also wanted to go as I haven’t visit the kaikan yet to repay my gratitude. Hence, tmr, they will come and find us and Claire also agreed to go. Yeah!!!
So the plan for tmr is to go to the Internet Café to finish blogging in the morning, cycle to explore Hiroshima City in the afternoon and attend Gakkai meeting in the night. :)

130108 - Sunday: Blog, Explore and My first Visit to the Kaikan!!!

As usual, we woke up at 8.30am and left the apartment at9.30am. While cycling, I asked Claire to divert into the Peace Park first to have a brief look at the surroundings. We will spend a few days next time thoroughly exploring the Peace Park and the museum. :)

After this, we cycled to Hondori to use the internet in the cafe to continue our blogs and this lasted till 1pm.

Next, we walked around other parts of Hondori while I searched for some food to eat. I went into one 100 Yen shop and bought 1 biscuit pack and 2 instant noodles cup just in case I go hungry at night. We walked and walked but find that the food there is all too expensive (or maybe because I feel it's beyond my budget). In the end, we went into a convenience store (I forgot the name of it) and I bought 1 Dora-yaki (Doraemon's favourite food Haha!) and 1 potato bread to eat as brunch while Claire ate the sushi left over from yesterday's dinner with Hashimoto' s family.

Me having my first Dora-yaki in Japan

Then at 2pm, we decided to start our cycling trip. I suggested cycling back to our apartment's station (Tokaichi-machi) and explore from there, in the hope of finding other better deal supermarkets or interesting places to visit. Hence, for this trip, we chose one of the lines, that is terminating at Eba station. We cycled along the tram line and there were altogether 6 stations after Tokaichi-machi. As we cycled further and further, there were lesser people and cars. There were a few parts of the journey where there were only Claire and I and nobody else! I felt like I'm in the scene from "28 Days Later" or "I am Legend". Cool!!! I told Claire about this and we all laughed for quite some time. :)

Me posing with the classical Electric Tram (streetcar)

It took around 40 minutes to reach Eba station but I don feel we have explored enough. We took some pics of the tram and depot resting the trams and continued cycling to check out more places. But the wind then was quite strong and because I did not bring my gloves out, my hands were numb and whenever I took pictures, I could not really open up my eyes. Then around 15 minutes later, we have cycled to the end of one part of Hiroshima. That place is a port resting the yatchs and with some heavy industries behind a mountainous background. I saw Mitsubishi plant and I straight away think about WW2 when the japanese government ordered them to manufacture warships. This might also be one of the places where the japanese soldiers before and during WW2 departed Hiroshima for China to fight in the war. (All this are just my guessings! Please don take them seriously!) Because Hiroshima used to be a very military active place, this is the reason the US decided to drop the first ever nuclear bomb on it.

After posing some pictures against the yatchs and mountainous backdrop, at 4.45pm it was time for us to go. (if not the mutated people will come out and chase after us! Haha...)

Did I pose like Will Smith in "I am Legend"?

We cycled back and it was getting colder and colder. But on the way, we discovered a supermart with unusually lots of bicycles and we decided to check it out. And indeed, the prices at this mart (called Fresta) was really cheaper than all the marts I have visited so far!!! So from here, I bought a loaf of bread (FYI, the bread here comes in 6 slices and each slice is 2.5 times our Singapore slice!) and we shared the cost for sausages, meatballs and soba, which we will cook in the further. After this, we carried on our journey back home.

We reached our apartment at 5.50pm and at 6.50pm, we went to meet Hashimoto-san outside his apartment to go to the kaikan (his apartment is just a 3 minutes walk from our apartment!). We took the electric tram (they called it the streetcar) and took to the end of the line, which is Hiroshima station.

From there, we took a 10 minutes walk to the kaikan. And along the way, I saw 2 kaikan shops, which are on the opposite side of the kaikan. And finally I have reached the kaikan!!! I don know why but I feel very touched as I went inside the kaikan. I nearly dropped my tears as I entered into the main hall and saw the Gohonzon. I sansho and sat down watching the TV beaming the Gakkai songs. By the way, today was the broadcast of Sensei's video! (I knew about this from Hashimoto-san only yesterday) The video was recorded in Tokyo's Makiguchi Memorial Hall last Thursday (the day I arrived in Japan) and I'm really grateful to be able to have the chance to watch the video on my first weekend in Japan!!! The video was one hour long with Sensei's speech half an hour long. For the front part which 1 WD leader and 1 MD leader made their speech, I could still understand as there were japanese sub-titles with Kanji and showing the Buddhist terms which were the same as chinese. I explained some of the terms and history of Soka Gakkai to Claire as she watched the video with interest. (I will send e-mail to everyone regarding the speech)

Me passing by a kaikan shop while on our way to the kaikan

After the speech, which ended at 9pm, we went to the first floor of the kaikan and from there, Hashimoto-san introduced me to members from our Tokaichi district. I met 4 members and I introduced myself to them. At the same time, Hashimoto-san also introduced Claire to our chapter's YWD leader and she will contact Claire for meetings in the future! After this, we went to Hiroshima Station with Hashimoto-san and wife for Hiroshima-yaki dinner! Yummy!!! It cost 700 Yen but Hashimoto-san paid for the both of us. We were very grateful to him as we still cannot thank him enough for yesterday's sushi dinner. We then took a taxi back cause Hashimoto-san's wife needs to wake up at 5am to deliver Gakkai newspaper (Seikyo Shinbun). Without guessing, Hashimoto-san paid for the cab fare and we alighted at a 7-11 cause Hashimoto-san need to buy breakfast for tmr. We waited for him ouside but then we were told by his wife that he was buying our breakfast also! We were shocked and we ran inside straight away to tell him not to buy cause we have bought our breakfast already!!! (He put 2 cans of biscuits and ice-cream into his basket which we straight away put it back to the shelves). After that, we walked Hashimoto-san and his wife back to their apartment before heading back to ours.

Hashimoto-san and I having our Hiroshima-yaki with udo inside!

Hiroshima-yaki!!!

At home, I washed some laundry and update my blog before going to sleep.

Finally got the Chance to update!!!

2008-01-12T16:12:00.000+08:00

Hello everybody!!!

Just wanna report to everyone that I have arrived safely to Hiroshima!!! It's kinda difficult to use the Internet for now cause I can't open an internet account without my foreign ID card. I have submitted my ID card application form yesterday but I can only collect it from the 25th Jan onwards... Right now, I'm in an Internet cafe using the Internet but it's FOC cause the Internet company we are subsrcibing to gave us complimentary tickets for Internet usage for one month...

So right now, let me start my updates!!! Yeah!!!

090108 - Wednesday: HanYen's Departure

I was still packing and finalising my luggage but still went to send Han Yen off cause this is more important as I will not see him for 6 months and also wanna wish him all the best for his attachment and take care of himself. I still have one day more to stuff all my things in tomorrow so packing can still leave it to then. Haha...

There were around 18 NTUSD members at the airport and we chatted with Han Yen and each other from around 10.45pm to 12 midnight, while at the same time, taking a lot of photos with Han Yen together.

Han Yen posing with all the YMDs for a final shot...

At around 11.55pm, it was time for Han Yen to go into the departure hall. And as usual, all of us lined up one line just outside the departure gate, saying farewell wishes to him. With this, Han Yen left for Shang Hai at 0055 hours on 090108 with China Eastern Airlines. Take care and all the best bro!!!

Han Yen bidding farewell to all the NTUSD members

And the queue goes on...

Good bye Han Yen, Bon Voyage and see you back in June with your victory report!!!

With this, tomorrow will be my turn to bid farewell to everyone...

100108 - Thursday: The time is now!!!

In the morning, I went to NTUC to buy 3 packets of dried mango. After packing into my bag, it is now super heavy! (FYI, I am carrying 3 luggages: 1 trolley, 1 bag filled with souvenirs, books and food for the Japanese people that I will meet and the third is my backpack.)

Then I went on to transfer all my traveling info, ie the jap sentences to say when taking the taxi, Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and my apartment address into my travel notebook.

After that, with some spare time in the afternoon, I went to recap back my jap vocab, which will definitely come in handy in Japan. After finish flipping, I went to pack my bags for the final time.
Soon, it was evening and Kian Joo came to my house after he ended his lessons in school. I had a farewell dinner with my parents and Kian Joo and then went to West Mall library to use the Internet (cause I had just terminated my home Internet account). Then at 9pm, the time has come for me to go to the airport...

At the airport:

My flight details are as follows: SQ656 bounded for Fukuoka at 0110 hours on 100108 at Terminal 3.

I reached the airport at 10pm, 1 hour ahead of check-in schedule. Saw Claire outside Row 3 of with her friends. We then went to check in and guess what? Our check-in luggage over exceed the weight limit of 25kg given to us!!! Claire's baggage was 45.1kg while mine weigh 41kg! Oh no! We did not check in our baggage straight but instead went to reshuffle our stuff, to distribute the stuff inside our luggage. I think we spent around 1 hour transfering our items here and there and went to the check-in counter a few times to try again but each time it was still over weight. Claire managed to persuade the SIA manager to increase our weight limit from 25kg to 38kg but we still overshot. Haha... So without any choice, I have to abandon some food items and further squeeze all my stuff. Now for the final time, Claire again managed to persuade the manager and he finally agreed to increase our limit to 40kg. Wow! That is the weight for a first class check-in baggage! Haha! From initially having to pay a fine of S$300 due to over-weight to now that it is free, this was really incredible!!! After my baggage was settled, it was time to finally say hi to my friends who were at the airport waiting...

I chatted with my relatives, my cousin and my MAE friends before going over to talk to my NTUSD mates. Think there were 21 people who specially came to Terminal 3 to see me off (William, Zhi Qiang, Hong Jin, Kiyo, Bing Bing, Jonathon, Mervin, Jackson, Wei Zhi, Wei Ji, Wee Chong, Kenta, Geraldine, Pei Jun, Siew Yi, Mavis, Harumi, Nobuko, Li Ting, Yvonne and Yu Fei). Thank you very much guys!!! Although my flight was in the wee hours of the morning, you all still came and have to take taxis back. I was really touched and I must really seek and come back with the Gakkai spirit from Japan!!!

Me and my cousin

Me with Samuel Chee and Zack

NTUSD members and I

After chatting with all of the people for one hours, at 12 midnight, it was now my turn to go inside the departure hall. The whole NTUSD lined up one queue outside the departure gate and I said my farewell wishes to them. But maybe I was shagged out with all the packing at the airport 2 hours ago, I was too tired to think about crying... Haha... After the farewell wishes and hugs, I finally took my bag and laptop and went in. After scanning my passportand entering the gantry, I bowed 3 times as requested by my NTUSD mates and that's it, Good Bye Singapore and Japan, here I come!!!

Watching Resident Evil 3 and having my western style breakfast on the plane

Finally, the sun has risen!!!

Yeah! I can see some clouds!

Yeah! Bird's Eye View of Fukuoka!

In the Airplane: SQ656, 1.30am to 6.32am (Singapore time).
Have supper at 2am and breakfast at 5.30am.

Our plane touched down at Fukuoka Airport earlier, so have to stay in the plane and wait for further announcements for around 15 minutes.

During customs, I took second finger for both hands for fingerprint identification and took a digital photo on the spot. Next, claimed baggage and Claire and I bypass the animal quarantine declaration even though we brought in so much food! Haha...

Came out of airport at 8.25am (Japan time) (FYI, the whole of Japan is faster than Singapore by 1 hour).
Spent 10 minutes taking photos at the arrival hall before boarding a taxi to Hakata train station.

Facts for Japanese taxi:
- Starting fare for taxi is 580¥.
- Driver will come out and help you put the luggage into the boot.
- And he will also open and close the door for you, so don’t need to touch the door at all.
- My taxi driver’s name is Koga Koji, 古賀　涸二.
- Total time taken: Approx. 10mins and fare is 1630¥ (S$1 = 76¥)

At Hakata station, went to buy the Shinkansen tickets.
- We chose the Nozomi line based on the time schedule which has a 30 minutes buffer for us to play safe.
- A one-way trip for 1 person is 8190¥ for the Nozomi line bounded for Tokyo (FYI, there are 3 different Shinkansen companies: Nozomi, Hikari and Kodama)
- We waited at Platform 12 for our train to come.
- We tried to choose the longest possible train ride so that we could rest our tired legs more cause we are shag out carrying our 7 luggages walking around Hakata station.
- Our Shinkansen made 3 stops throughout the journey: (Different lines have different number of stops based on the price of your ticket)
Hakata ----- Kokoda ----- Shin-Yamaguchi [新山口]----- Hiroshima
- Total trip lasts from 9.49am to 11.02 am (Japan time).

Upon arrived at Hiroshima station, we stayed at the platform for 30 minutes waiting for different kinds of Shinkasen to come so that we could take photos and videos with them!!! We took a lot of pictures of the Shinkansen’s bullet head as well as the bodies. いいですね!!!

At 11.45am, left the station but Claire could not find her camera a it might get knocked out of her luggage while we are traveling down the escalator. So we spent half an hour searching the platform again for her camera but to no avail. In the end, she decided to ask one of the train conductors and he passed her the camera! All Claire did was to fill in her particulars and contact no so that they can call her in case another person also claim the camera.

Then with this commotion ended, we head for the exit out of the train station and took a taxi to our apartment. The ride was also approximately 10 minutes and the fare was exactly 1500¥. (The starting fare in Hiroshima is 610¥ instead of 580¥ in Fukuoka.)

Our apartment’s name is called Suncourt Tokaichi. We reached there at 12.55pm (Japan time) and pressed the bell for the reception. But I think they were out for lunch ba. So we waited for around 20 minutes, resting and chatting until finally an obasan (auntie) saw us and immediately opened the door for us. We were so delighted! The auntie straight away issued us our room and letter box keys and taught us how to open the ground floor main door using our room keys! Then another lady, Miss Wang appeared. She is a Chinese and is a staff of this apartment. She communicated with us in Chinese and issued us our bicycles (should be left behind by the past interns) as well as telling us how to separate our rubbish for disposal. (Interesting!) Yeah! We were pretty excited with our bicycles as we can now explore the whole of Hiroshima in the future! We then took pictures with them and checked into our room at 1.45pm. From there on, we started unpacking .

At 4pm, I went out with Claire to the supermarket cause I heard from William that on the 10th of every month, there’s a 50% discount on selected items. (On our way there we bought a prepaid international calling card but it somehow cannot work with phone operators). But when we reached the supermarket, it has changed to a new company called Apanda (instead of Oouchi – the one I visited the last time). Claire went to ask the staff regarding the discounted prices and they said there were no such things now! Oh no!!! But in the end, since we were already there, we just buy a few stuff first, namely cooking oil, garlic, egg, carrot, vegetables, detergent (those that are the cheapest around) to store up first and this amounted to 1040¥.

We reached back at our apartment at 6.15pm (by the way, the night darkens at around 5.30pm) and waited until 7pm to call Hashimoto-san.

I got through to Hashimoto-san’s phone but he said he was having a company party at the moment. But he asked me for my apartment unit number and he will come tomorrow at 7pm and “Bing Bong” my room. (which means call me up) Haha…

In the end, I brought Claire to a nearby shop called つくし (Tsukushi) restaurant to eat Hiroshima-yaki, which was being recommended by William. It cost 600¥ and it was really delicious!!! Finally get to eat it again after 1 year of absence but as the serving was quite large, cause with udon inside, I almost cannot finish it. Haha! (FYI, the ingredients inside Hiroshima-yaki are flour with egg, sliced cabbage, bacon, bits of meat, udon (or you can choose soba or nothing inside) and of course, the okonomiyaki sauce!!!)
During the meal, we chatted with the ojisan and obasan and took photos with them. They were also very friendly people. We will definitely come back next week to try out other dishes!!!

After dinner, we went back to our apartment at 8.15pm and did my other admin stuff till 1.30am. I was very shagged by then. And so this is how I spent my first day in Hiroshima. :)

110108 - Friday: Meet-up with Ford HR department and settling admin stuff...

Woke up at 8.10am. Did my morning Gongyo and gave Claire a wake up call at 8.30am. Today, we are supposed to reach FHO (Ford Hiroshima Operations) which is located at Nissei Midori building (Hatchobori Tram station) at 10.30am (cause the HR manager passed a note to our apartment lady to inform about this when we just reached). Today is not the official working day but just to go to the office to meet up with the HR manager to settle our reimbursements for all the transportations to Hiroshima (Air ticket, Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and taxi fares). I wore formal with blazer on but this is the norm over here in Japan... Everywhere you go, you will find working people wearing coats or blazers. And so I don’t feel uncomfortable at all...

Me and Claire's first visit to Ford Building

We left the apartment at 9.30am. The tram ride takes about 15 minutes but we wanted to reach there earlier to give a good impression. But as usual, cock-ups appear. Haha... When we arrived at the tram station, we crossed the road and the path split into 2 ways. We chose the one on the right and walked for 10 minutes until we saw Hiroshima Mazda building. We went inside to look at the directory and yes, there is a third floor for Mazda which we were supposed to go to. We went up and entered the room and saw the extension number to call the person that we want to meet to come out. We saw the name of our HR manager, Mr Yamada and called him. But it was the wrong guy! This Yamada-san said Mazda and Ford are at different buildings. He then went inside his room to print for us the local map and brought us down to show us how to go to Ford building. What a nice guy he was!!! This means that we chose the wrong path at the beginning and hence we ran back. We ran for ard 5 minutes but we reached the HR office at 10.40am, 10 minutes late. But luckily the correct Mr Yamada was busy on the phone and so we are safe!!!

Taking with a Road Sign along the way

After finishing his call, he brought us to the conference room and we gave him all our receipts for transportation and also visa application (which I didn’t know can claim back). He then went on to explain to us how to apply for the foreign ID pass, bank account, setting of internet account and also the places of interest in Hiroshima that we can visit. While talking, my supervisor and his supervisor, who is the chief engineer, came into the conference room and introduced themselves to us. Claire and I also introduced ourselves and we exchanged namecards. They sat for around 5 minutes chatting with us before going off to resume their work. Then at around 11.45am, we finished the briefing and went on to settle our ID card, bank account and internet account. For the ID card, we were told to wait till the 25th Jan to collect. As for the bank account, which we were told to go to Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, they said that we must have our ID pass first before we can have an account. The same goes for the Internet but this is longer as the sales guy say we could only have it installed at the end of February. So late!!! (That’s why I am now at an Internet Café writing this blog up).

My office is located at the 4th floor of the building

After all these, we went to Daiso to grab some grocery and personal food stuff.

Mister Donut shop: Delicious Donuts!!! Yummy!!!

By then, it was already 6.15pm and we are meeting Hashimoto-san at 7pm. We were at Hondori then (which is the main shopping district in Hiroshima) but still decided to walk back home instead of taking the tram cause there is no reimbursements from the company for today. Haha... It was a 30 minutes walk and on the way we walked past the Atomic-Bomb Dome. Think I’ll see that everyday cause it is in between my apartment and my workplace. So no matter if I walk, cycle or take the tram, I will definitely see it! Yeah!!!

By the time I reached back, it was already 6.55pm. I took off my blazer and straight away Hashimoto-san called. Claire and I went down immediately to meet him outside our apartment building. When I saw Hashimoto-san, I was really happy cause I can finally see him again after 1 year and 2 weeks.

My every first meet-up with Hashimoto-san!!!

He still looks the same to me just that he has cut his hair but his English has definitely improved. Claire is like my translator, explaining to me those long sentences that Hashimoto-san said but I also tried my best in listening and trying to understand. I passed him William’s postcards and some food that I brought over from Singapore such as Ba Gua, dried mangos and spicy hebi. Hashimoto-san said that because his wife was having a company dinner tonight, he did not organize a dinner today. Instead, he arranged with us dinner for tomorrow night as a welcome dinner for us and we will be having sushi in his house!!! Authentic sushi and not those sushi with cold rice that we find in Singapore’s restaurants!!! We then walked with Hashimoto-san back to his home cause we wanted to know how to get there tmr and I took a picture with him. I’ll be waiting eagerly for tmr night!!! But first, the plan for tmr, Sat, is to find the building that we will be having our Japanese lessons. Will be looking forward for tmr... :)

Gifts

2008-01-08T19:43:00.000+08:00

I have prepared some gifts for the Gakkai members in Japan. And this is the breakdown:

1) 50 sets of Mrs Ikeda Postcards
2) 20 Mrs Ikeda Notebooks
3) 1 SSA mug
4) 15 SSA notepads
5) 5 Singapore style Fridge magnets
6) 6 Singapore-style gongyo books
7)1 CD (Songs of Kosen-rufu)
8)1 song CD on SSA 40th Anniversary cum Youth Festival
9) SSA times
10) Creative Life (October, November, December and January issues)

And these are the books that I will be bringing there to read and learn:

1)The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra Volume 1 Chapter 1-2
2)On Being Human (Where Ethics, Medicine and Spirituality converge)
3)Choose Hope (Oops! I didn't read it the last time!)
4) NHR Volume 11
5) The World of Nichiren Daishonin's Writings (Volume 3)

I will post photos and further updates of my interactions with the local Hiroshima members when I attend the meetings there!!! Cya!

HIROSHIMA - THE TIME IS NOW!!!

23rd Week - Friday - Sunday (130608 - 150608) Good Bye Hiroshima...

23rd Week - Thursday (120608) Long time no see!!!

23rd Week - Monday to Wednesday (090608 - 110608) Photos, photos and more photos...

22nd Week - Friday to Sunday (060608 - 080608) Farewell Dinner

22nd Week - Monday to Wednesday (020608 - 040608) 1.5 weeks left in Hiroshima

21st Week - Friday - Sunday (300508 - 010608) Meaningful Weekend

20th Week - Friday (230508) Updates

18th Week - Saturday (100508) GW Update Part 4

18th Week - Friday (090508) GW Update Part 3

18th Week - Friday (090508) GW Update Part 2

18th Week - Thursday (080508) I'm back!

16th Week - Monday to Friday (210408 - 250408) Week before Golden Week

15th Week - Thursday to Sunday (170408 - 200408) Zadankai Marathon

15th Week - Wednesday (160408) My First JR ride home

14th Week - Sunday (130408) Bicycle Repair

14th Week - Saturday (120408) Baseball Game

14th Week - Monday to Friday (070408 - 110408) Sakura Week 2

13th Week (310308 - 060408) Sakuras!!!

12th Week - Saturday and Sunday (290308 - 300308) Start of Sakura Season!!!

12th Week - Friday (280308) Saburi-san's Farewell Dinner

12th Week - Wednesday & Thursday (260308 - 270308)

12th Week - Tuesday (250308) 3.16 Singapore published in Seikyo Shimbun!

12th Week - Monday (240308) Accident

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) A Soka University Chapter.

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) A Soka University Chapter.

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) Soka University Chapter.

11th Week - Thursday to Sunday (200308 - 230308) A Soka University Chapter.

11th Week - Monday to Wednesday (170308 - 190308) Busy Busy Week!!!

10th Week - Saturday and Sunday (150308 - 160308) 3.16!!!

10th Week - Friday (140308) My 3rd Zadankai and Birthday Celebration with Hashimoto-san!!!

9th Week - Sunday (090308) 竹原 ひなまつり

10th Week - Monday to Thursday (100308 - 130308) Busy Busy Week!!!

9th Week - Saturday (080308) Burst

9th Week - Monday to Friday (030308 - 070308)

8th Week - Saturday and Sunday (010308 - 020308) First Wekend of March!

8th Week - Thursday and Friday (280208 - 290208) Last Days of Feb!

8th Week - Monday to Wednesday (250208 - 270208) Start of a New Workplace and Environment!

7th Week - Sunday (240208) Visit to the Kaikan & Recce!

7th Week - Saturday (230208) Chilly Experience

7th Week - Wednesday to Friday (200208 - 220208)

7th Week - Tuesday (190208) Work In Progress. Sorry for any Inconvenience Caused...

7th Week - Monday (180208) Start of a Busy Week!

6th Week - Sunday (170208) Science Centre, Food Sampling and Dinner

6th Week - Friday & Saturday (150208 - 160208) One Month Anniversary in Office and my 2nd Zadankai!

6th Week - Thursday (140208) Valentine's Day!

6th Week - Wednesday (130208) Snowed the whole night!

6th Week - Tuesday (120208) An Omiyage (お土産) Gift

6th Week - Monday (110208) Visit to ASA Zoo (安佐動物園)

5th Week - Sundayv(100208) Visit to Miyajima Oyster Festival!!!!

5th Week - Friday and Saturday (080208 - 090208) One Month Anniversary!

5th Week - 水曜日 と 木曜日 (060208 - 070208) 中国人の新年 おめでとう ございます！！！

5th Week - Tuesday (050208) Planning for Long Weekend!

5th Week - Monday (040208)

4th Week - Sunday (030208) Played Ground Golf and Explored 宮島口!

4th Week - Saturday (020208) Grocery Shopping!

4th Week - Friday (010208) Start of a New Month！

4th Week - Thursday (310108) Last Day of January!!!

4th Week - Wednesday (300108) Blank

4th Week - Tuesday (290108) Dan Shibu Meeting.

4th Week - Monday (280108) Snowing Half the Day!!!

3rd Week - Sunday (270108) Kaikan

3rd Week - Saturday (260108) SnowBoarding Rules!!!

3rd Week - Friday (250108) Tiring Day!

3rd Week - 木曜日 (２４０１０８) 今日は 広島市で はじめて 少し ゆきが 降りましたね！！！ すごい！！！

3rd Week - Wednesday (230108) Sushi Dinner!

3rd Week - Tuesday (220108) My First Dan Shibu Meeting!

3rd Week - Monday (210108) Meetings all the way!!!

2nd Week - The Weekend

2nd Week - Friday (180108) My First Zadankai!!!

2nd Week - Thursday (170108) My First Exercise!!!

2nd Week - Wednesday (160108) Ramen Lunch & Curry Rice Dinner!

2nd Week - Tuesday (150108) First Day of Work

Second Week - Getting Ready For Work!!!

My First Weekend in Hiroshima

Finally got the Chance to update!!!

Gifts

9th Week - Sunday (090308) 竹原　ひなまつり

5th Week -　水曜日　と　木曜日　(060208 - 070208) 中国人の新年　おめでとう　ございます！！！

3rd Week - 木曜日 (２４０１０８) 今日は　広島市で　はじめて　少し　ゆきが　降りましたね！！！　すごい！！！