Japan Travelogue - Everything Peculiar

We come across many things Japanese in our everyday life - most notably, their game consoles, electrical products, etc. And not to mention, the NSFW stuffs that we could be all too familar with. But what is it really like to be personally in Japan and experiencing everything Japanese? If this intrigues you, then you have come to the right place! Here, you will find episodes revealing different facets of this fascinating country, courtesy of my ten-day trip. ;)

The very first things that dawned upon me upon my arrival are the peculiarities - and as the days go by, more and more of them were either overtly or subtly discovered. Firstly, it's the currency - the Japanese do not use cents. At all. Part of the reason might be because their currency is weaker compared to ours? Anyway, here's a snapshot of some Japanese coins:

Japanese coins

And Japanese notes:

Japanese notes - 10,000 yen

Speaking of currency exchange, 10,000 yen is approximately equivalent to 150 SGD, which makes product price range of a few to tens of thousands commonplace. But that doesn't make the coins useless! In fact, you will often need them while purchasing small items and tickets, such as the ones shown below:

A flurry of tickets

The Japanese seems to have a strong inclination towards use of tickets - lots of stuffs are being ticketed, including food (an example of one such ticket, is the one on the top left-hand corner - it says that I have purchased one set of fried pork with raw ginger)! However, I also have to say this is much more convenient than the queuing system that we have here in Singapore - and it minimizes the error in cooking the wrong meal as well! However, the food there is definitely not cheap - as you can see on the ticket itself, the set costs about $9. Speaking of food, I am sure you must be eagerly anticipating savory photos to follow, but nope! Not in this episode anyway, but stay tuned 'cos there will definitely be more to come.

Out of the airport to hit the streets! The first thing one would notice about the streets in Japan are its orderliness - the lands are divided into small plots, where major and minor roads are interspersed between these plots:

Street in Osaka

However, by observing closely, it can be seen that there are certain things about Japanese roads that are quite different from that of in Singapore. Firstly, the wordings on the road are in Japanese (DUH!!). And they have lots of zebra crossings - I means LOTS. Back here, the part where passengers are permitted to cross are denoted by two parallel white lines, but in Japan, they are all represented by zebra crossings - even diagonal ones. Some roads even have specially allocated bicycle lanes! In addition, their traffic lights have no buttons, so all you can do is to just stand and wait. Fortunately, the green man seems to appear more frequently than in Singapore, so waiting isn't really an issue.

What's another thing that you will notice that is markedly different from Singapore? It's the weather. Granted, I haven't really experienced how their summer is like, the temperature now is ideal for trips and living. It's temperature range is at a cool 15C to about 25C, which is on average, about 10C lower than what's in Singapore. Don't believe? See the weather forecast below:

Weather prediction board - found in a hostel!

Another good thing is, you hardly ever sweat! Unlike here, where merely making a trip to the supermarket would reward you with a sweaty T-shirt. However, the cold and dry weather might lead to symptoms such as parched lips and flaky skin - both of which had been experienced by me, and those are definitely downsides to the otherwise wonderful weather.

That was a lot of information, wasn't it? However...one post is definitely insufficient to cover the vast amount of wonders witnessed there. I have to stop here for the time being, but I promise there's more to come. ;) Stay tuned!

It's all over - after 4 years

It is finally over. After a long journey of 4 years, my sojourn at NUS has finally come to an end - marked by my final paper yesterday, which finished at 3pm. The moment when I walked out of the exam room, I suddenly felt my shoulders are completely free of burden - wait. Free of burden? Not exactly true...'cos there are bigger things to do after this! However, I am just gonna enjoy this moment, which I have very much so earned it - after countless hours of mugging, headache, sleepless nights, late journeys home, and what nots.

Looking back at the four years in university, I can't really say that it has been an ideal experience, for many reasons. Perhaps mixed with a heavy dose of idealism, I have always wanted varsity life to be a colorful one - one that has many components to it: lesser focus on studies, work opportunities, chances to meet tons of people, partying, outings and stuff. However, after going through everything, I am sad to say that a major part of university life is still buried in books, notes, lectures and midnight oil. I consider myself to be quite hardworking already, but as the saying goes: "for a tall mountain, there is bound to be (at least) one taller than that". This feeling is amplified whenever I passed by the YIH study rooms when nearing exam periods - there would already be students 'camping' there to study, some of them even overnight. I am sure this is so too in other parts of the school. I have to hold my hands up though, that I can never mug this hard - and seriously, I don't see why I should despite knowing the perennial importance of grades here.

My experience with the chemical engineering course is also a relatively rocky one - there have been times when I was really struggling, the stuff that I was studying just cannot get into my head, or worse, look absolutely alien to me. There were a couple of modules that I nearly failed, or so I thought, but fortunately, I didn't. The multitudes of modules that I took did open my eyes to many things though, to the facets of chemical engineering and beyond. It is a very tough course alright, and to be able to make it through is, in itself, an achievement.

Due to the heavy academic commitments, most of the people I got to meet and socialize with naturally came from my course - and there are a few that are truly formidable in terms of ability. I am also being exposed to pseudo-political maneuvrings and undercurrents, which made me sick to the stomach in some instances, to still see some of them and be able to tide over the awkward moments with feigned smiles. Those that have been there before, you know what I mean. Not that I like it, no one does, but we all have to deal with it. It is, after all, part and parcel of the route of maturity and independence. But if you ask me whether I would select this course again if given a choice, I would give you a negative answer. Once is enough, I would like to try something else. For an over-engagement in mechanical stuff does make one lose a bit of edge in terms of fulfilment of relational needs and sociability.

That said, I feel that I have gone through a lot, and learned aplenty too. And as I hit my quarter life mark, things are chugging on faster than usual, I have noticed. But I have to bite the bullet and carry on. And to the one that I thought was the one, it was a short, bittersweet memory that I will never forget, forlornly so - just that fate does not ordain us to walk the same path. Anyhow, you can bet that one day I would emerge with the hand of the other. So long.

I was at the Bloggers' Calendar 2009 launch

In mid-December of 2008, I took part in the photoshoot for Bloggers' Calendar 2009. Two separate sessions were held then, and I went for the later one. The session, which was held in Willy Foo's LiveStudios, was a fun and vibrant one as I experienced for the first time what it was like to be a photo model (although I have to admit that I am not photogenic, haha). It also got me excited that my photo, along with approximately 20-odd other bloggers, will be appearing in the calendar itself. And needless to say, it also got me expectant of the formal launch itself.

The launch was held yesterday evening at Ice Cold B's in SMU. I was amongst one of the earlier ones to reach, and hence I also laid my hands on the calendar relatively quicker. It was packed in a neat little plastic casing as shown in the picture below:

Nice idea by the way, to have the bloggers lined up below - the only downside is, it's too small to be seen!

Anyway, back to the event. As I was sitting around listening and chatting to those who were there (e.g. Brennan, Robert and Mohan), the other participants gradually arrived too. As the place was rather small and cosy, we were sort of huddled up and split into small groups as we chatted. Dinner was served at around 7 plus, along with a menu of liquors that the outlet serves. However, not being a fan of alcoholic drinks, I didn't order any of them (reason being - I don't really like the taste of liquor, so I don't really understand how some people manage to finish a few bottles of it...well, to each his/her own). Anyway, the standard of dinner was good enough for me to help myself with two servings.

As the participants busy themselves with their meals and the discussions, I also noticed that there was one photographer who was moving around to take pictures - OK, that's probably pretty normal, you would say. What amazed me was the speed and precision at which the photos were processed - I was handed a couple of them with me included within minutes! Here's a snapshot of the 'freshly prepared' photos:

That was impressive, if you asked me. :p

At around 9pm, another guest arrived at the scene - and this one's not a human.

It's a gaming console - the Wii! I have a gaming console at home as well, but it's a PS3, so handling a Wii was yet another novel experience for me. The hot game of the night was the Rayman Rabbids - I have heard of it before, seen the screenshots but have not tried it. Now I could.

The game itself consists of several continents in the world, within which contains 5 different mini-games each. Up to four players could participate simultaneously, and a point tallying system is used - the player with the lowest gross total receives a roll of toilet paper (LOL). And so I managed to play in all the continents - the bulk of the game was based on a sense of wackiness, humor and novelty. There were a few that I particularly liked, such as the handphone-in-the-cinema and bumper cars mini-game. The fun was contagious as the audience had as much of it as the players.

In my opinion, the Wii is a nice alternative in the gaming market, although I personally still prefer my PS3. The former's useful for occasions such as friends' gathering such as yesterday's though.

The night drew to a close for me slightly past 10pm, although several bloggers stayed to carry on with whatever was left. And so I packed and left with fond memories and a copy of the Calendar.