I wants to see Mishka's bebe...
I wants to have "half chicken, half roast pork with rice" at Hanging Duck with Posh.
I wants to have have corned beef and biscuit at work with Kaos and the gang with MC Hammer threatening to cut our pay...oh and some dalo or cassava would be nice too!
I wants to meet the monkies for coffee at Ronald McDonalds hang out.
I wants to get hugs from my darling Lunatic.
I wants to take a can of(cold) coke from Dophlins and sit outside FijiTV and chat with Jolie.
I wants to stay up late and talk about everything and nothing with me mummy and eat all the yummy foods that she makes.
I want to bother my dogs when they are asleep.
I want to catch up with me bro...in person.
I wants to be able to see the sea from the main road.
I wants to...sigh.
and no, this is not an emo post. I can be absolutely happy here and still miss the wonderful things and people from back home. Infact, I think these are the things that keep me from turning all emo here!! ok, i will stop writing before I get too soppy. I am hardcore. /grrr (thats my hardcore grunt)
oh and i also wants to have cheap beers at the Lighthouse with Aung...but I couldn't do that even if I WAS home. sigh.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
what a week!
started the week with a cold...sniff, sniff...the cold outside didn't make it any more bearable and with it also came a wave of semi-homesickness...i wants my mummy!!
Had dinner with two of dad`s friends yesterday. Got to the station where i was supposed to meet them early so wandered about the fancy stores to kill time. Here`s a shot of the Xmas display at Shinjuku station.
Shinjuku is an area in Tokyo and the station is usually the one most people go to to change trains so its VERY very busy and crowded, with waves of people pushing through every few minutes (as opposed to the rest of Tokyo which is only very busy.) A new `Shinjuku Terrace City` has been set up which basically just has (more!!) shops and restaurants to get people to spend (even!!) more money.
Here`s part of the Xmas display on the roof, have a strong suspicion it was set up the day after Halloween. The shops here go all out with the Xmas themes too coming up with any excuse to get people to spend more money.
Joy to the world, consumerism lives!
Dinner was both awesome and sad at the time. One friend of dads' just moved back to Japan last month after working in Fiji for 4 years. Hehe...you can tell he spent a lot of time in Fiji by his vakachis and complaints about the crowds on the train and the cold! He bought a parcel from home, Mum had sent sulus, a bula shirt (yippeee!!) and some spices to assist with my attempt to make Fiji curry in Japan! Funny how things happen when you most need them to, this helped immensely to snap out of the homesickness!!
The other friend of my dads (who is now more my friend than dads`) is probably one of the coolest Japaneza I have met here. He got me from the airport to my dorm on my first night here and is just all around a fun guy...my first friend in Tokyo and a very good one at that! there are some people you just click with and feel comfortable with immediately after meeting them...he's one of those people.
Unfortunately he and his family are moving to Pretoria in February as he is being posted there for work. :( So yeah. His parents live in Kyoto and so I have been offered free lodge at his folks' place whenever i decide to go up there...hopefully sometime soon, Kyoto boasts beautiful temples but also want to see some of the left over old architecture before the place is completely turned into concrete jungle like the rest of Japan!! oh! and i also get his bike...for free!!!
A good friend at the dorm, lets call her Neto (will refrain from using nationalities to refer to people as Kaos pointed out that it 'paints their characters with wide strokes'...woah! like totally deep dude!) So anyway, Neto found a flat close to uni and is sealing the deal today! Her boyfriend gets here at the end of the month and so it was kinda urgent but she also got a sweet deal so that's a double delight! Downside is that moving into the new flat means moving out of the dorm :(
boohoo! my partner-in-crime, alcohol/art gallery/shopping/just being randomly silly buddy, confidante and sorta neighbour (her room is down the corridor from mine and we have an understanding where instead of using the fone we'd just walk up or down the corridor and knock on each other's door at anytime!) is moving away! wow, been a good three months!
Hehe, for Halloween Neto forgot to get a costume for the dorm party so with whatever resources we had, we dressed her up as an ...Island girl. Yes, necessity IS the mother of the most random inventions. She`s also the only other person in half of Tokyo who was as mad as me to go swimming when we finally got to a beach at the end of summer. sigh! oh well, at least she`s moving closer to the uni so we still get to see her!!
Ok, time to go enjoy my weekend, yes its only Thursday but tomorrow's Japanese classes are canceled and Monday is ...yep, yet ANOTHER national holiday in Japan. I love this country!!! Cheers to a week that's as long as the weekend, and to one that started off miserably but is now as cheerful as the flowers on my new Bula shirt. :)
Had dinner with two of dad`s friends yesterday. Got to the station where i was supposed to meet them early so wandered about the fancy stores to kill time. Here`s a shot of the Xmas display at Shinjuku station.
Shinjuku is an area in Tokyo and the station is usually the one most people go to to change trains so its VERY very busy and crowded, with waves of people pushing through every few minutes (as opposed to the rest of Tokyo which is only very busy.) A new `Shinjuku Terrace City` has been set up which basically just has (more!!) shops and restaurants to get people to spend (even!!) more money.
Here`s part of the Xmas display on the roof, have a strong suspicion it was set up the day after Halloween. The shops here go all out with the Xmas themes too coming up with any excuse to get people to spend more money.
Joy to the world, consumerism lives!
Dinner was both awesome and sad at the time. One friend of dads' just moved back to Japan last month after working in Fiji for 4 years. Hehe...you can tell he spent a lot of time in Fiji by his vakachis and complaints about the crowds on the train and the cold! He bought a parcel from home, Mum had sent sulus, a bula shirt (yippeee!!) and some spices to assist with my attempt to make Fiji curry in Japan! Funny how things happen when you most need them to, this helped immensely to snap out of the homesickness!!
The other friend of my dads (who is now more my friend than dads`) is probably one of the coolest Japaneza I have met here. He got me from the airport to my dorm on my first night here and is just all around a fun guy...my first friend in Tokyo and a very good one at that! there are some people you just click with and feel comfortable with immediately after meeting them...he's one of those people.
Unfortunately he and his family are moving to Pretoria in February as he is being posted there for work. :( So yeah. His parents live in Kyoto and so I have been offered free lodge at his folks' place whenever i decide to go up there...hopefully sometime soon, Kyoto boasts beautiful temples but also want to see some of the left over old architecture before the place is completely turned into concrete jungle like the rest of Japan!! oh! and i also get his bike...for free!!!
A good friend at the dorm, lets call her Neto (will refrain from using nationalities to refer to people as Kaos pointed out that it 'paints their characters with wide strokes'...woah! like totally deep dude!) So anyway, Neto found a flat close to uni and is sealing the deal today! Her boyfriend gets here at the end of the month and so it was kinda urgent but she also got a sweet deal so that's a double delight! Downside is that moving into the new flat means moving out of the dorm :(
boohoo! my partner-in-crime, alcohol/art gallery/shopping/just being randomly silly buddy, confidante and sorta neighbour (her room is down the corridor from mine and we have an understanding where instead of using the fone we'd just walk up or down the corridor and knock on each other's door at anytime!) is moving away! wow, been a good three months!
Hehe, for Halloween Neto forgot to get a costume for the dorm party so with whatever resources we had, we dressed her up as an ...Island girl. Yes, necessity IS the mother of the most random inventions. She`s also the only other person in half of Tokyo who was as mad as me to go swimming when we finally got to a beach at the end of summer. sigh! oh well, at least she`s moving closer to the uni so we still get to see her!!
Ok, time to go enjoy my weekend, yes its only Thursday but tomorrow's Japanese classes are canceled and Monday is ...yep, yet ANOTHER national holiday in Japan. I love this country!!! Cheers to a week that's as long as the weekend, and to one that started off miserably but is now as cheerful as the flowers on my new Bula shirt. :)
Friday, November 14, 2008
KAICOLO!!
So was on my way to the station this morning around 7.30...and let out a sigh...and and..
...
...I saw my BREATH!!!! lol..
and when i realised that i had seen my breath...i continued to breathe out (huff out) of me mouth so i could see more of my breath.
Who cares what the passersby thought...I COULD SEE MY BREATH!!!!
hehe...yes, kaicolo central!
...
...I saw my BREATH!!!! lol..
and when i realised that i had seen my breath...i continued to breathe out (huff out) of me mouth so i could see more of my breath.
Who cares what the passersby thought...I COULD SEE MY BREATH!!!!
hehe...yes, kaicolo central!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
a slang be!
SO being from the city of slangs...the Fiji Islander in me had to go ahead and start creating slangs with my newly learnt set of Japanese vocabulary. (but ofcourse).
Very benri...
benri= convenient.
Usage:
A san: I found an apartment right near Waseda!!!!
B san: ooh! very benri!!!
could also be used as "totally benri"..."absolutely benri" etc.
How benri is that?!!!!
Very benri...
benri= convenient.
Usage:
A san: I found an apartment right near Waseda!!!!
B san: ooh! very benri!!!
could also be used as "totally benri"..."absolutely benri" etc.
How benri is that?!!!!
Let there be heat!
So I made it a point to take the ac/heater remote downstairs to the TV room and get one of my kanji-knowing friends to translate.
Kanji-knowing friend: "So the system is set to COLD mode right now."
...
my room no longer resembles the inside of my bar fridge.
yay! for the acquisition of much needed warmth.
Kanji-knowing friend: "So the system is set to COLD mode right now."
...
my room no longer resembles the inside of my bar fridge.
yay! for the acquisition of much needed warmth.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
brrrrring on the winter gear
...coz it be getting cold!
thing is...apparently this is autumn...so i dont know what the hell is going to happen in...winter.
Now if I could only figure out how to use the damn ac/heater in the dorm room.
and yes, the remote IS in Japanese...and not even in Hiragana which I can now read (!!!) but in Kanji. Atleast in Summer I could play around with the dials and eventually figure out how to cool my room (i found out the hard way that taking down the temperature to 18 does not mean that a/c will emit cold air...taking it up to 25 actually makes the room cold...go figure!)
Cept now, hoping for hot air when I DO take the numbers down to 18...the air is still cold. hmmmm.
"Pacific Islander found frozen stiff with heater remote in hand in dorm in Tokyo"
R.I.Freeze.
thing is...apparently this is autumn...so i dont know what the hell is going to happen in...winter.
Now if I could only figure out how to use the damn ac/heater in the dorm room.
and yes, the remote IS in Japanese...and not even in Hiragana which I can now read (!!!) but in Kanji. Atleast in Summer I could play around with the dials and eventually figure out how to cool my room (i found out the hard way that taking down the temperature to 18 does not mean that a/c will emit cold air...taking it up to 25 actually makes the room cold...go figure!)
Cept now, hoping for hot air when I DO take the numbers down to 18...the air is still cold. hmmmm.
"Pacific Islander found frozen stiff with heater remote in hand in dorm in Tokyo"
R.I.Freeze.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Procrastination...
Its amazing how many new posts are generated out of the time one is supposed to spend working on one`s research plan for an application that is due tomorrow.
"Procrastination is like masturbation, in the end you`re just screwing yourself"
"Procrastination is like masturbation, in the end you`re just screwing yourself"
gone up in smoke...
I may, quite possibly, have given up smoking...maybe not indefinitely maybe definitely...but i haves.
The mystery of the missing hat
After the shopping spree and Art exhibition, Danish and I met up with Australian at station near dorm and went to get some Okonomiyaki.
Okonomiyaki is where you sorta mix a buncha ingredients and cook them on a hot plate in the middle of the table...sorta like omelette's. The wikipedia definition describes it as "is a Japanese dish consisting of a pan-fried batter cake and various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked"; thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like".
Danish and I made Australian do most of the cooking, we were trying to live out our fantasies of going out shopping all day and coming home to a nice meal prepared by the man..close close! but we pooled our efforts for the final order and cooked up quite the feast! a splendid meal indeed!
Got back to the dorm room and had a few nightcaps (till 3am!) with Australian and Danish and were joined by American and Spanish-japaneza and Chilean. Amazing how many people one can fit into these tiny dorm rooms when an occasion calls for it!
So while hanging out decided to go through the shopping to see what I had bought earlier that day and how much buyer`s remorse it would ignite (hardly any!)..went through all the bags and still couldn't find the hat! /gasp! oh noes! we figured it probably got misplaced..and would be in one of the other gals bags.
Next morning everyone rendezvoused in one of the kitchens to cook up a brunch of bacon and eggs (nomnomnomnom) and also found out that the hat was...missing. Tried to trace back my path to figure out where I would have dropped it and figured (hoped wished) it had been left behind on the shelf near our table at the Okonomiyaki place as the colour of the bag matched the colour of the shelf.
So more than 12 hours later dropped by the restaurant with Australian (who did translating) and they had...kept the bag!!!!!!! I love this country. I have had friends forget wallets, books etc on counters and come back hours later to have it sitting exactly where they had left it...!!! How safe is that!!!
/tips hat.
Okonomiyaki is where you sorta mix a buncha ingredients and cook them on a hot plate in the middle of the table...sorta like omelette's. The wikipedia definition describes it as "is a Japanese dish consisting of a pan-fried batter cake and various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked"; thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like".
Danish and I made Australian do most of the cooking, we were trying to live out our fantasies of going out shopping all day and coming home to a nice meal prepared by the man..close close! but we pooled our efforts for the final order and cooked up quite the feast! a splendid meal indeed!
Got back to the dorm room and had a few nightcaps (till 3am!) with Australian and Danish and were joined by American and Spanish-japaneza and Chilean. Amazing how many people one can fit into these tiny dorm rooms when an occasion calls for it!
So while hanging out decided to go through the shopping to see what I had bought earlier that day and how much buyer`s remorse it would ignite (hardly any!)..went through all the bags and still couldn't find the hat! /gasp! oh noes! we figured it probably got misplaced..and would be in one of the other gals bags.
Next morning everyone rendezvoused in one of the kitchens to cook up a brunch of bacon and eggs (nomnomnomnom) and also found out that the hat was...missing. Tried to trace back my path to figure out where I would have dropped it and figured (hoped wished) it had been left behind on the shelf near our table at the Okonomiyaki place as the colour of the bag matched the colour of the shelf.
So more than 12 hours later dropped by the restaurant with Australian (who did translating) and they had...kept the bag!!!!!!! I love this country. I have had friends forget wallets, books etc on counters and come back hours later to have it sitting exactly where they had left it...!!! How safe is that!!!
/tips hat.
A day for several firsts!!!
After the shopping spree on Saturday, with my new boots in tow, went with Danish gal to the Mori Art Museum in a place called Roppongi Hills that has an amazing view of Tokyo! Since we got there late afternoon we got to catch a bit of sunset and even saw what we are calling `a silhouette of Mt Fuji`. After the exhibition we got to see Tokyo at night from 53 storeys high! breathtaking!
The exhibition was a display of works by a French artist Annette Messager and for my first art exhibition was a very nice one. The artist had some very skewed and morbid perspectives, sprinkled with a dash of humour at times. tres awesome!
The exhibition was a display of works by a French artist Annette Messager and for my first art exhibition was a very nice one. The artist had some very skewed and morbid perspectives, sprinkled with a dash of humour at times. tres awesome!
What not to do when broke
Go shopping!
yes. bad idea. Decided to have a gals day out with spanish-japaneza and danish friend. on Saturday. Seriously addictive shopping in Tokyo is...especially when you keep coming across things that are so cheap compared to what you would have to pay for them back home.
A pair of boots (my first pair of boots!!!), a nice hat, some sweaters, stockings etc later...I am now...fashionably broke!
:) life is good!
Also, teriyaki chicken with mayo and lettuce wrapped in crepes to beat the hunger pangs while shopping is absolute awesomenesss!!! The crepes in this country are awesome...infact, I think they deserve a post of their own.
yes. bad idea. Decided to have a gals day out with spanish-japaneza and danish friend. on Saturday. Seriously addictive shopping in Tokyo is...especially when you keep coming across things that are so cheap compared to what you would have to pay for them back home.
A pair of boots (my first pair of boots!!!), a nice hat, some sweaters, stockings etc later...I am now...fashionably broke!
:) life is good!
Also, teriyaki chicken with mayo and lettuce wrapped in crepes to beat the hunger pangs while shopping is absolute awesomenesss!!! The crepes in this country are awesome...infact, I think they deserve a post of their own.
FAIL
So was eagerly awaiting my second allowance due to arrive on Oct 30th so I could splurge straight away on a new macbook.
Checked account on 30th...no new deposits. I thought...meh, i probably got the date wrong.
Checked with other kids at the dorm on the 31st and everyone had gotten their`s so this time it HAD to be in! checked account..zilch. How could this be! I clearly remember signing up for the allowance on the due date! ( and yes, we have to sign up at our Grad School EVERY month to recieve the allowance)
so inquired at the International students centre who had to inquire with the scholarship office and word finally came to explain why the funds were MIA.
Signing up on the due date is apparently not good enough...it has to be done before Midday. A small but majorly important fact i had overlooked in the piles of papers with instructions given out during orientation at the University.
"Good afternoon, Apple helpdesk? Hi, I am calling regarding an order placed for a mac book yesterday. Would it be possible to cancel or postpone...."
Also, I are broke.
Checked account on 30th...no new deposits. I thought...meh, i probably got the date wrong.
Checked with other kids at the dorm on the 31st and everyone had gotten their`s so this time it HAD to be in! checked account..zilch. How could this be! I clearly remember signing up for the allowance on the due date! ( and yes, we have to sign up at our Grad School EVERY month to recieve the allowance)
so inquired at the International students centre who had to inquire with the scholarship office and word finally came to explain why the funds were MIA.
Signing up on the due date is apparently not good enough...it has to be done before Midday. A small but majorly important fact i had overlooked in the piles of papers with instructions given out during orientation at the University.
"Good afternoon, Apple helpdesk? Hi, I am calling regarding an order placed for a mac book yesterday. Would it be possible to cancel or postpone...."
Also, I are broke.
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