Day 41 - Sing sing sing~

May 7, 2011

I love weekends, but they never seem long enough..XD Well, I can't complain at all since I had a 7-day holiday not long ago. It was a chilled day. =) My "only" activity was probably singing K.

Man, karaoke here is soooooo much cheaper than in Vancouver!! I guess because karaoke places are everywhere in Japan, and most people don't sing K in the afternoon. The deal we got included a deesert, unlimited soft drink & soft serve, and 3 hours singing. It was only 1,290 yen!!! Because it's a Saturday, it was 300 yen more expensive than normal days. It was very cheap compared to Vancouver in my opinion. It would be 200 yen more if it was all u can sing. However, we figured 3 hours should be enough for 2 ppl.

In Vancouver, the cheapest I knew was about 2,000 yen (including tax & tips) for all you can sing within 5 hours on weekdays from 2pm-7pm. If you wanted drinks, you would have to order drinks one by one. I also remembers paying more than $50/person (about 5,000 yen) when I went singing with some friends back in Vancouver. However, I do miss singing K w/ friends in Vancouver. =)

It was fun! =) It was great to hear some "new" songs and get my Chinese song fix. There are a number of Chinese songs. We sang some English songs, Chinese songs, and a few Japanese songs. I missed singing Chinese songs. It reminded me of my life in Vancouver. haha! =P In terms of Chinese songs, I was surprised to find some perhaps not as "famous" songs, but not be able to find some perhaps more famous songs. For example, we wanted to sing 好心分手 since we were looking for a duet. However, we were a little bit surprised they didn't have it. Oh well, everything was good. =)

Interestingly, I suddenly felt like I have an "epiphany" (笑). I felt like I really need to change one of my habits in speech. I guess since it's a habit, I find myself do it unconsciously. By the time I said something like that, I've already said it. haha! Well, I'll continue to try. =)

Thanks for the company. =) I figured my Mandarin is even worse now... (哭）=(

Day 40 - Yay! 給食 is back!!! =)

May 6, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANT!! =) I bet you're having fun in Van right now! That's so good. =) It's good to see family and long time friends again eh? =) May you continue to have a blessed year la! =)

Hehe, yup, school lunch (給食）is back! =) How I miss school lunch...... A little "lesson" I learnt form school lunch - treasure the things while you still have them. You never when you will lose something you like/love...so please treasure every moment. =)

Today's menu wasn't really my favourite to be honest. =P There were that deep fried whatever that is and a bowl of really filling "soup". However, they still tasted quite good. I guess things that are "hard to get" are often more enjoyable... haha!

Today was the day back from a 7-day holiday. I could see the students weren't quite "back" yet. Well, I don't blame them because I think I wasn't quite back yet too. haha! I was glad that another weekend fast approached. After school, I was glad that I had sushi and ice cream w/ great company. =) It was a nice evening~ Thanks!

Well, food for thought: treasure what's around us.

Day 39 - 仙台、ただいま～

May 5, 2011

Today marked the end of my short but sweet Aomori/Hirosaki trip. It was a nice little trip. Today also marked the end of Golden week! I love holidays!! I wish it was longer!! This morning, we took the JR bus back to Sendai. Ohhhh, Although I just had a 7-day holiday, I felt like I didn't have enough holiday. I actually dreamt of work yesterday night!! Haa, more like a nightmere.........

Hmmm, so what had I done during these 7 days? I volunteered at Natori on day 1 and 2. Well, more like day 1 I would say. Because I was late, we only made towels. Ha... I didn't do much on day 3. Well, I cleaned my place, so I guess I still accomplished something...? I believe I didn't do much on day 4 too. Ohhh, I just mailed a package and went to a bday party. Then it was day 5-7, which was my Aomori/Hirosaki trip. Wow, time flies, but I would have to say this Golden week was quite well-spent. =P

Yeah, that's true. We don't konw what will happen in the future. I believe we are in God's hands. Stick to him and He will guide us through. It is common for human to worry about things, but I guess as long as we believe we are safe in His arms, He will give us "surprises" that are for our good, and 超乎我們所求所想。 May God give me the strength and wisdom in walk in Your ways. =)

Hehe, it's always great to hear good news. May God continue to bless all these people... Be strong and courageous. God has His time for different things to happen in our lives. Do we trust that He will guide our lives as long as we stick to His words?

I am learning.

Day 38 - Hanami! (花見）

May 4, 2011

Yay! it's time for hanami~ =) After the breakfast at the hotel, we took the 9:07 train to Hirosaki.

We packed things like snacks, tarp, umbrella for our hanami. When the bus was just outside the park, I could see a lot of sakuras already!!! There were soooo many! We found a place to sit and eat, but suddenly, the sky started to cry and there were even thunders..... Ohhhhhhh, why did it rain??????? It wasn't supposed to rain!! Well, so we walked around and we finally settled on a bench with a castle view. It was nice to chat w/ the girls and of course...eat. =)

We went into the castle and walked around the castle area. It was actually not as crowded as I thought. I really enjoyed the time when we just sat, ate, and chatted. =) With the thousands of cherry blossoms, no wonder soooo many Japanese likes to do hanami! I have never seen soooooo many cherry blossoms in one place before!!! I am sooooo glad I came here~~ =) I still remember planning this trip back in January/February. I am glad it actually became true!

We also visited a few former samurai's houses. They were very interesting. =) We then went back to Aomori for some apple souvenirs. Aomori is very famous for its apples, so there were many apple-related products.

It was quite a chilled trip. I enjoyed the bonding time and of course the sakuras. =) 一期一会~ I'm not sure when would be the next time we would do something like this, but I treasure all the time we spent together.

快樂時間過得特別快, we are leaving tomorrow.

Sweet dreams~

Day 37 - Aomori trip begins~

May 3, 2011

Yay! It was time for Aomori. =) We had been planning this trip for a few months. It's great that it's actually happening! woot woot! =)

We took the 7:50am bus to Aomori today. Our member consists of Winsy, Emily, Amanda, and I. We were all very excited! =) Because it's Golden week, the travel wasn't very good. We were a bit more than an hour behind schedule. We arrived at Aomori station at around 2:15. Luckily, our hotel was close to the station.

We first got some food and drink at a little cafe, then we went for a seemingly delicious apple waffle. It was actually quite nice! I wasn't too sweet or too doughy. I liked it. =) Aomori is very famous for its apples. Most apples I've seen in grocery stores in Sendai were from Aomori. While we were roaming around near the station, we we to a place beside the station called "A-factory". It was like a souvenir store/grocery store. The picture was the apple snacks we got from the store. Oh yeaaaaa, we girls HAVE to have snacks! =P These snacks were for our hanami (cherry blossom viewing) tomorrow.

I wasn't sure if it was just Golden week or if we were not in the city centre or something. The town seemed a lot quieter than I thought. Although I wanted to see the big white dog outside of the Art museum, we didn't have enough time. Oh well, our focus was hanami at Hirosaki castle anyway. It is Hirosaki castle's cherry blossom festival now. We chose a great time to come. =)

Hope the weather would be nice tomorrow! I can't wait to see thousands of sakura! =)

Day 36 - Very slacked day...but Happy Bday EMILY! =)

May 2, 2011

It's a Monday and I had no school today...yay! =) Having today off made me feel the last Saturday that I worked was welllll worth it~ It was a very nice day today! I was very slack and lazy...as usual. It was quite an unproductive day too. haha! After having lunch at home, I went to the post office to mail a parcel, then I went home to "study". Well, I really did attempt to study, but I felt asleep...XD After I woke up, I decided to just watch some online movies~ wahahaha! guilty pleasure...

Man, I seriously have no fashion sense AT ALL..... =( That is soooooo sad..... It took me an hour to just figure out what to wear for my friend's bday dinner. Since it is suggested to dress nicely, I tried very hard to wear something decent...and I failed. Sigh...........I wish I knew how to dress nice tooo... =(

Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY! =) I had been craving for pizza for the longest time!! We had her bday dinner at a..um...Italian..(?) restaurant. Like many party plans, there was nomi hodai (all u can drink). I ordered a drink called "peach orange", some sort of orange cocktail, and I finished Winsy's rum coke. I am not an alcohol drinker. I can only drink something that's very fruity. I guess I was thirsty or something (and not wise..). I finished those 3 drinks in..um...15-20 min..? Being a non-alcohol drinker, I guess that drinking rate was pretty high. I felt quite dizzy and acheky after the drinks. It was not fun to feel tipsy from alcohol. After a few friends saw my condition, I only had water for the rest of the night. Yeah, I guess that proves I'm not an alcohol drinker and I can't drink too much or too fast. Those were good drinks though. I guess sometimes the "potent" drinks are from those that you can't really detect the alcohol. I learnt a lesson. It was good food w/ good company. =)

Yay!!! The long-waited Aomori trip will be tomorrow!!!! I am very excited! I am excited to see the thousands of sakura outside of Hirosaki castle during its sakura festival.

I am very excited. Can you feel my joy!? \(^o^)/

Day 35 - 大掃除...

May 1, 2011

Wow, where did time go??? It's May already!!! That means I've been in Japan for 9 months already!!! Wow, time flies.... It really does.

Since I went volunteering for the last two days, I decided to stay at home (well, for the majority of the day anyway...) and clean my apartment!! I haven't vaccummed for 2 weeks....I could see dust and hair on the floor....ewwwwww... It was a cloudy day. I was so tired that I woke up pretty late today. After ingesting some substances into my system, my big clean up began. When it comes to cleaning, I am glad that my place is very small. It actually didn't take long to vaccum my place. Since it didn't take long, I decided to do a very thorough cleaning. After vaccumming, I wiped the floor. It is much better and cleaner wiping the floor instead of mopping, but of course, it's more tiring and time consuming. Well, it definitely felt good to live in a clean place!! =) Since I was in the mood of cleaning, I also cleaned all the rugs in my place. I'm glad I saved old toothbrushes. Using toothbrush with detergent made my door mat clean again! yay~ =)

After cleaning, I went to one of my favourite studying places, Mcd, to study. Well, I also got my dinner there. Yeah yeah, I guess it wasn't the most nutritious dinner, but I did some studying. It was good. =)

Hmmm, basket robin ice cream is 31% off! Hmmmm, tempted...